# LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



UNITED STATE8 OF AMERICA, f 



^5 



HOW TO GET A FARM, 



AND 



WHERE TO FIND ONE. 



SHOWING THAT 



HOMESTEADS MAY BE HAD BY THOSE DE- 
SIROUS OF SECURING THEM: 



THE PUBLIC LAW ON THE SUBJECT OF FREE HOMES, 
AND SUGGESTIONS FEOM PRACTICAL FARMERS; 



TOGETHER WITH 

NUMEROUS SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS, WHO, THOUGH 
BEGINNING/ WITH LITTLE OR NOTHING, HAVE BE- 
COME THE OWNERS OF AMPLE FARMS. 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 

"TEN ACRES ENOUGH." 



C*Cwvu^t<t^£ 



Ucfoforh: 
PUBLISHED BY JAMES MILLEK, 

(SUCCESSOR TO 0. S. FRANCIS A CO.) 

522 BROADWAY. 
1864. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S64, 

By JAMES MILLER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
the Southern District of New York. 



RENNIE, SHEA ft LINDSAY, AsDEBSON & TvAMSAT, 

STEBEOTYPBR9 AND ELECTROTYPEK8 39l'UltCtS, 

81, 83 & 85 Centre-street, 

New York. 28 Ft ankfort Street, JV. Y. 



s*> 



PREFACE. 



The rich man needs no such work as this. His 
ample purse will enable him to purchase land where- 
ever his fancy may lead, paying for other men's im- 
provements, and lavishly expending his means on 
new ones. He has his idols in common with the 
poor man. The first thought of the former is to im- 
prove and embellish ; that of the latter is simply to 
acquire. 

The now wealthy man was at one time actuated 
by a similar impulse. Henceforth his ambition is 
to spend. As the poor are always with us, there is 
a constantly existing crowd whose aspirations are 
identical with those which he once entertained. 
Many of them are equally deserving with their 
successful predecessors. Many of them have no 
thought of achieving fortune by commerce, trade, 
or manufactures, or the national vice of office-seek- 
ing. Their attention is directed exclusively to agri- 
culture, and the acquisition of land. They have 
either been brought up as farmers, or a passion has 
been born with them to become such, or disappoint- 



4 PREFACE. 

ment elsewhere has turned their thoughts in the 
same direction. 

In all these cases, they are aiming for a common 
goal — the securing of a farm. Multitudes succeed 
in their object, while other multitudes fail — some 
from ignorance, some from incurable incapacity, 
others from misdirection. The man who digs for 
gold at random will invariably become poor, while 
he to whom the precise spot has been pointed out 
wherein the precious deposit lies concealed, will, 
with a fraction of the same industry, become rich. 
To be successful in any thing, effort must be directed 
by intelligence. Fortunes may be stumbled on oc- 
casionally, but stumbling will be found to be a very 
precarious dependence. 

So far as misdirection may be a cause of failure, 
it can to some extent be avoided. My object is to 
show how such result may be prevented, by suggest- 
ing practical methods for insuring success — some 
original, some derived from the ripe experience of 
others. I write with no reference to mere land 
speculation, such as induces men to purchase to-day 
for the sole object of selling at a higher price to- 
morrow, the new buyer selling a week later to a 
still newer one, while neither has, in the interval, 
expended a dollar in improvements. I treat almost 
exclusively of gradual increase of value, and only in- 
cidentally of sudden enhancement. Incidents of 



PBEFACE. 5 

tlie latter do occur without the owner's having ever 
contemplated them. While not to be disregarded 
as incidentals, they are not adopted as primaries. 

My effort has been to group together in the fol- 
lowing pages some of the many remarkable openings 
for agricultural enterprise which exist in our country. 
Wherever we turn they are to be found. The great 
West has long abounded with them, and the South 
will soon be equally prolific. The Middle States, 
New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, contain thou- 
sands of these openings, where cheap lands within 
reach of cash markets have long been waiting for 
purchasers. But they have remained comparatively 
unknown to the agricultural public. The owners 
have not prized them as they deserved to be, and 
the speculators have overlooked them. The great 
West has carried off the honors as well as the popu- 
lation. 

It is believed that an acceptable service will be 
rendered to inquirers, by bringing together, in a 
single compact view, a description of these several 
classes of openings. By thus having them in a 
hand-book, they can be readily and conveniently ex- 
amined. Each inquirer can read and determine for 
himself. The variety may be pronounced confusing. 
No other country offers a tithe of the inducements 
that are held out to all classes in this. Wherever a 
man may incline to settle, there some eligible open- 



6 PEEFACE. 

ing will be found to exist, no matter whether he eon- 
templates engaging in agriculture or not. In en- 
deavoring to show all how to get a farm, it was 
important to inform them where it might be had. 
On both points they will here find abundant in- 
formation ; — the action must be taken by them- 
selves. 

An effort has been made to draw attention to 
the great but unappreciated value of the numerous 
tracts of swamp-lands which are to be found among 
the centres of population in all the older States. 
The subject might have been further elaborated by 
suggesting the application of organized capital to 
this enterprise on a large scale. It has been thus 
organized and applied in Europe; but our country 
is probably too young, and land too abundant, for 
an extensive undertaking of that character to be en- 
tertained. 

Particular reference has been made to the vast 
quantities of cheap lands for sale in the three States 
of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. The in- 
formation touching these lands and their produc- 
tions, has been derived, in some instances, from cor- 
respondents on the spot. In others, as in Delaware 
and New Jersey, my account is mainly from per- 
sonal inspection. I could reach them conveniently, 
and had the fullest opportunity for making a very 
thorough examination. I conversed with many per- 



PREFACE. 7 

sons who had settled there from other States, saw 
their improvements, as well as their crops, and re- 
ceived candid replies to all inquiries as to how they 
liked their new locations, and how they were suc- 
ceeding. The facts thus acquired are reported with- 
out suppression or exaggeration. 

I have travelled over most of the Illinois Central 
Railroad, and seen the astonishing improvements to 
which that great enterprise has given birth. Euro- 
peans, in common with Americans, are familiar with 
the wonderfully liberal terms on which the Com- 
pany are offering their fertile lands to actual settlers. 
They have made thousands of industrious families 
the possessors of noble homes, and will enable other 
thousands to become equally independent. I have 
given a connected history of the Company's lands, 
with some items of information heretofore unpub- 
lished, which will be useful both to foreign and 
domestic readers. 

It is known that foreigners are now seeking this 
country .in larger numbers than for several years 
past. This coming stream of immigration promises 
to expand into greater volume than ever. Multi- 
tudes of these are ignorant of our true condition, 
and need correct information. The majority are in 
search of land. Even our own citizens are deplora- 
bly ignorant of where to find the most eligible, and 
how to secure it. The facts contained in these 



8 PREFACE. 

pages have been collated with especial reference to 
the wants of both these classes of inquirers. 

Some pages, not mentioned as quotations from 
other writers, may be recognized by the reader as 
having already appeared in the columns of different 
newspapers. All such were written by myself. 
Where the labors of others in the same field of 
inquiry have been used, the proper acknowledg- 
ment has been made. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Poverty no Hindrance — Government Lands — Free Farms — 
The Homestead Law — Its Friends and Enemies — Settlers 
in Wisconsin — Germans in the Union — Immigration — A 
Southern Homestead Law — Continued Grants of Public 
Land 13 



CHAPTER II. 

Number of Free Farms — Population, Present and Future — 
Increase of Public Wealth — Past and Future Immigra- 
tion — Gold Mines — Farms — Enough for All 



CHAPTER III. 

What makes Land valuable — Prices balancing each other — 
How poor Men pay for high-priced Farms — A practical Il- 
lustration — A Farm for the Right Man 52 

CHAPTER IV. 

More Opinions and Experiences — Some Objections — Addi- 
tional Light — Encouraging the Young — A personal His- 
tory — Getting an Illinois Farm — One Example — Good 
Suggestions — Buying and going in Debt — Value of the 

Discussion 69 

1* 



10 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER Y. 

PAGK 

Exhausted Farms always to be had — Thriving Tenants — 
Owners anxious to sell — Bartering Farms — A lucky Begin- 
ner — City Owners — Taking Advice — Where to search — 
Saving a poor Farm — Struggling with limited Means — A 
Cry from a Working Man 103 



CHAPTER VI. 

Wanting the Best— The Poorer Lands first Cultivated, then 
the Richer Ones — Value of Swamps — History of three of 
them — Cranberry Swamps of New Jersey — Power of Ex- 
ample — The Mississippi Swamp Interest — Wealth follow- 
ing Reclamation — Public Loans to aid Drainage — John 
Johnston, the Great American Tile Drainer 119 



CHAPTER VII. 

Getting the first Thousand Dollars — How to save — Man 
wants but little here below — Actual Cost of Food — Great 
Successes — A Dime a Day 163 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Long Island Barrens — Their Condition, Price, and 
Crops 190 



CHAPTER IX. 

The neglected Lands of Delaware — Repeopling the Slave 
Region — Condition, Soil, and Products — Crops and Lum- 
ber — Farms for Sale, and Prices — Railroads — Maryland 
Farms 205 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Wild Lands of New Jersey — Opening of the first Railroad — 
Rapid Improvements — New Towns — Hammonton, Egg 
Harbor City, Vineland, its history, condition, and future — 
The neighboring Lands 228 



CHAPTER XI. 

The West — Illinois, and the Central Railroad Lands — Cli- 
mate, Soil, and Productions — Vine-growing in Missouri — 
Free Lands in the Territories 253 



CHAPTER XII. 

Land in the South— Effect of Civil War on Titles— Progress 
and Results of Pacification — Openings in Louisiana, South 
Carolina, and Virginia — Great demand for Labor — Cotton- 
growing — Society after the War 271 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Many kinds of Farmers — Women managing Farms — Very 
Small Ones — Eleven Acres — A Two-acre Farm — The Spade 
and the Fork — A Single Acre — Heads better than Hands — 
Help Yourself 302 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Why Land so often changes Owners — Tenures and Estates 
in England — Absorption there and here — Results of En- 
glish Husbandry — The real Value of Land — Stick to the 
Farm — Scarecrows — Why Farming is Unprofitable — Go 
where most wanted 318 



HOW TO GET A FARM, 

AND 

WHERE TO FIND ONE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Poverty no Hindrance — Government Lands — Free Farms — The 
Homestead Law— Its Friends and Enemies— Settlers in Wis- 
consin — Germans in the Union — Immigration — A Southern 
Homestead Law — Continued Grants of Public Land. 

The buyer of a commodity seeks to purchase it 
at the lowest price ; the seller, to dispose of it at the 
highest. This is the unvarying law of trade. The 
wealthy merchant acts up to it as closely as the 
poor man whose whole capital is the shilling on 
which he expects to dine and sup. It may be said, 
indeed, that it is the successful practice of this rule 
that constitutes the difference between the rich and 
the poor. It breaks down the barrier between the 
two, and elevates the latter to the condition of the 
former ; for it is an accepted dogma of trade, that a 
thing cheaply purchased is already half sold. 

Apply it to the acquisition of land. The -man 
desirous of obtaining a farm seeks to obtain the 



14 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

greatest number of acres for the smallest amount of 
money. It is as much the governing principle of 
the rich as of the poor. Common sense, sharpened 
by long habit, teaches it to the former, but necessity 
teaches it to the latter. But it happens that the 
poor of this country cannot allege poverty as a bar 
to the acquisition of as much land as one man 
ought to possess. The vast public domain of the 
Union has been thrown open for them to enter in 
upon it as a gift. No such munificence has been 
displayed by any other government, either ancient 
or modern. When the Norman overran and con- 
quered England, the land was partitioned off among 
those who assisted in the subjugation ; but the mere 
poor man received no share because of his poverty. 
In our own day, the boundless fields of Australia 
and New Zealand are sold, not given away. This 
government alone has enunciated the principle that 
the poor man who desires to acquire land is entitled 
to it without price. It seeks no money compensa- 
tion, but looks for remuneration to the growth and 
prosperity of the nation consequent on the settle- 
ment and cultivation of its vast unoccupied domain. 
The stranger from a foreign country, though he 
neither fought for it nor has been taxed for it, comes 
in an equal sharer with the native-born citizen. 

Such lands would therefore seem to be cheaper 
than all others, and hence the most to be sought 
after. Price has no bearing upon them — they are 
to be given away. The causes of this unexampled 
liberality, the men in whose comprehensive states- 
manship it originated, the opposition they encoun- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 15 

tered in its advocacy, and the conditions on which 
the great boon was finally wrung from its slavehold- 
ing enemies, should be fully known and understood. 

It will be seen hereafter how immense the public 
domain yet is, even after the squandering of mil- 
lions of acres on speculators and monopolists, which 
the last few years have witnessed. What disposition 
was to be made of this vast domain, was a question 
which long occupied the minds of thoughtful men, 
and of all who had the best interests of society at 
heart. Like most other questions in this country, it 
degenerated ultimately into one of party. It was 
clearly seen by one body of citizens that unless some 
radical change were made in the law, the public 
domain would continue to be the spoil of monopo- 
lists and speculators, the' inevitable end of which 
would be the creation of an odious landed aristoc- 
racy. To prevent an evil so dangerous to public 
liberty, they determined that the only remedy was 
to set it aside for the exclusive use of actual settlers, 
in small quantities, giving it to them either at a 
nominal price, or as an absolute gift. 

The question was an exceedingly simple one, if to 
be decided on its own merits. But no sooner had 
the free-land policy been enunciated, than the slave- 
power rose up in opposition. It was a measure in 
the interest of freedom, and slavery could not tol- 
erate it. As the latter had for many years con- 
trolled the action of the government, so it was to 
override it now. Being itself a huge landed aris- 
tocracy, it saw with instant alarm the prospect of a 
multitude of small freeholds being established, 



16 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

knowing that in such a community an aristocracy- 
could not exist. It had uniformly been hostile to 
pre-emption laws, and all others which tended to 
aid the settler in acquiring a small tract of land, 
and hence its bitter opposition to the free-soil scheme. 
Such settlers would be working men, mostly from 
the Free States, who would not only till the soil with 
their own hands, but would build school-houses, 
establish newspapers, and diffuse education. As no 
such community of intelligent toilers was permitted 
in the South, so should it be forbidden in the 
West. 

On the 20th of January, 1859, a bill relating to 
pre-emptions being before the House of Represent- 
atives, Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, moved a section 
that no public land should thereafter be exposed to 
public sale by the President, unless it had been sur- 
veyed for ten or more years before such sale. The 
force and effect of this provision would be to give 
pre-emptors a start of ten years ahead of the spec- 
ulators, that is, settlers would have ten years in 
which to choose, buy, or locate on the public lands 
before they could be sold to the speculators — thus 
giving the poor and industrious man abundant time 
to clear up his farm and pay for it from the pro- 
ductions of the soil. 

The slave-power wanted no such liberty extended 
to the poor man. It therefore sought to defeat the 
bill ; but Mr. Grow's amendment was adopted by a 
vote of 98 to 81. 

The Republican vote was unanimous in its favor, 
and the entire slave-power voted against it, nine 



AND WHEKK TO FIND ONE. 17 

only excepted. Mr. Grow's amendment thus became 
part of the bill ; but when the vote on the bill itself 
came to be taken, 91 Republicans voted for it, while 
the whole body of slaveholders, with their Northern 
allies, 95 in number, went against it. Only two 
members from the Slave States voted for the bill, 
Mr. Blair, of Missouri, and Mr. Winter Davis of 
Maryland, who represented the free-labor interests 
of Baltimore. 

In February, the Homestead Bill was voted on in 
the House, and was passed by 120 to 76, only three 
Southern members voting for it. The bill was killed 
in the Senate by smothering it, all but five of the 
Southern Senators going against it. It was then 
abandoned for the session. In both Houses of Con- 
gress the Republicans had gone solid for it, while 
the slaveholders and their allies had so unanimously 
opposed it as to insure its defeat. 

In 1860, another Homestead Bill was introduced 
into the House by the Republicans, and was passed 
by 115, all from the Free States but one, to 65 against 
it, all from the Slave States but one, and he a 
Pennsylvanian. When this bill went into the 
Senate, it was superseded by a substitute, which the 
House subsequently accepted, with slight amend- 
ments, the Republicans as usual voting for free 
homes, and the slaveholders and their allies oj^posing 
them. This took place in June. But Buchanan, 
then President, and the feeble and truculent tool of 
the slaveholders, vetoed the beneficent enactment, 
and once more it fell to the ground. 

But undismayed by these reverses, the friends of 



18 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

the bill persevered in their determination to provide 
free homes for the poor ; and overcoming all oppo- 
sition, passed the present law, which Mr. Lincoln, 
on the 20th of May, 1862, did not hesitate to sign. 
The provisions of this act are as follow : 

AN ACT to Secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public 
Domain, and to Provide a Bounty for Soldiers in lieu of Grants 
of the Public lands. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled : 
That any person who is the head of a family, or who has 
arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of 
the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of 
intention to become such, as required by the naturalization 
laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms 
against the United States Government, or given aid and 
comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the 1st of 
January, 1863, be entitled to enter one quarter section, or 
a less quantity, of unappropriated public lands, upon which 
said person may have filed a pre-emption claim, or which 
may, at the time the application is made, be subject to pre- 
emption at $1.25, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less 
of such unappropriated lands, at $2.50 per acre, to be lo- 
cated in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of 
the public lands, and after the same shall have been sur- 
veyed : Provided, That any person owning and residing on 
land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land 
lying contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, 
with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the 
aggregate 100 acres. 

Section 2. And be it further enacted, That the person 
applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application 
to the Register of the Land-office in which he or she is 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 19 

about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said 
Register or Receiver that he or she is the head of a family, 
or is twenty-one years or more of age, or shall have per- 
formed service in the army of the United States, and that 
he has never borne arms against the Government of the 
United States, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and 
that such application is made for his or her exclusive use 
and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of 
actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or 
indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or per- 
sons whomsoever ; and upon filing the said affidavit with 
the Register or Receiver, and on payment of $10, he or she 
shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land 
specified : Provided, however, That no certificate shall be 
given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five 
years from the date of such entry ; and if, at the expiration 
of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, 
the person making such entry — or if he be dead, his widow ; 
or, in case of her death, his heirs or devisee ; or, in case of 
a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in case of 
her death — shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, 
she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for 
the terra of five years immediately succeeding the time of 
filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affidavit that 
no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has 
borne true allegiance to the Government of the United States y 
then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen 
of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in 
other cases provided for by law : And provided further^ 
That in case of the death of both father and mother, leav- 
ing an infant child, or children, under twenty-one years 
of age, the right and fee shall enure to the benefit of said 
infant child or children ; and the executor, administrator, 
or guardian may, at any time within two years after the 



20 

death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the 
laws of the State in which such children for the time being 
have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit of said in- 
fants, but for no other purpose ; and the purchaser shall 
acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be entitled 
to a patent from the United States, on payment of the 
office fees and sum of money herein specified. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Register of 
the Land-office shall note all such applications on the tract 
books and plats of his office, and keep a register of all such 
entries, and make return thereof to the General Land-office, 
together with the proof upon which they have been 
founded. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That no lands acquired 
under the provisions of this act shall in any event become 
liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted 
prior to the issuing of the patent therefor. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, at any time 
after the filing of the affidavit, as required in the second sec- 
tion of this act, and before the expiration of the five years 
aforesaid, it shall be proven, after due notice to the settler, 
to the satisfaction of the Register of the Land-office, that 
the person having filed such affidavit shall have actually 
changed his or her residence, or abandoned the said land, 
or shall have ceased to occupy said land for more than six 
months at any time, then and in that event the land so 
entered shall revert to the government. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individual 
shall be permitted to acquire title to more than one quarter 
section under the provisions of this act ; and that the Com- 
missioner of the General Land-office is hereby required to 
prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent 
with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its 
provisions into effect ; and that the Registers and Receivers 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 21 

of the several land-offices shall be entitled to receive the 
same compensation for any lands entered under the pro- 
visions of this act that they are now entitled to receive 
when the same quality of land is entered with money, one- 
half to be paid by the person making the application at 
the time of so doing, and the other half on the issue of the 
certificate by the person to whom it may be issued ; but 
this shall not be construed to enlarge the maximum of com- 
pensation now prescribed by law for any Register or Re- 
ceiver : Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall 
be so construed as to impair or interfere in any manner 
whatever with existing pre-emption rights : And provided, 
further, That all persons who may have filed their ap- 
plications for a pre-emption right prior to the passage of 
this act shall be entitled to all privileges of this act. Pro- 
vided further, That no person who has served, or may here- 
after serve, for a period of not less than 14 days in the 
army or navy of the United States, either regular or vol- 
unteer, under the laws thereof, during the existence of an 
actual war, domestic or foreign, shall be deprived of the 
benefits of this act on account of not having attained the 
age of 21 years. 

Sec. V. And be it further enacted, That the fifth section 
of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act more 
effectually to provide for the punishment of certain crimes 
against the United States, and for other purposes," approved 
the 3d of March, in the year 1857, shall extend to all oaths, 
affirmations, and affidavits, required or authorized by this 
act. 

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this 
act shall be so construed as to prevent any person who has 
availed him or herself of the benefit of the first section of 
this act, from paying the minimum price, or the price to 
which the same may have graduated, for the quantity of 



22 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

land so entered at any time before the expiration of the five 
years, and obtaining a patent therefor from the Government, 
as in other cases provided by law, on making proof of 
settlement and cultivation as provided by existing laws 
granting pre-emption rights. 

Here is land for almost nothing. A quarter sec- 
tion is a hundred and sixty acres. The whole cost 
of obtaining such a farm is the ten dollars to be 
paid to the Keceiver of the Land-office in which 
the farm may be located. On payment of this sum 
he enters into immediate possession, and after re- 
maining five years upon it, he receives a patent 
from the government, which is equivalent to a deed 
in fee. 

It may be supposed that this cheap way of getting 
a farm would occasion an instantaneous rush from 
East to West, to secure locations on the public do- 
main, as well as an enormous influx of European 
immigrants. The act did not go into effect until 
January 1, 1863 ; yet, within four months from that 
date, notwithstanding the troubled state of the coun- 
try, more than a million of acres were taken up 
under its provisions, and, by the close of September, 
this amount was increased to nearly a million and 
a half. But the great bulk of enterprising and ad- 
venturous Americans have either been drawn into 
the army or been too much occupied at home by 
the pressure of business forced upon them by the 
brisk demand for manufactures, occasioned by the 
war, to undertake the founding of a new home in 
the West. Neither of these classes has been at full 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 23 

liberty to embrace the provisions of this beneficent 
act. Neither, until very recently, have Europeans 
been well enough informed of our actual condition 
during the rebellion, to feel themselves safe in ven- 
turing among us, even for the purpose of securing 
the magnificent sift which Government holds out 
for their acceptance. 

They have been led by rebel emissaries to believe 
our whole Northern and Western country to be the 
scene of battle, with desolation everywhere, and 
safety nowhere. The same dishonest agencies have 
been employed in leading them to believe that for- 
eigners were conscripted at the moment of their 
landing among us. As men avoid rather than seek 
tumult, so, from these causes, the foreigner has been 
content to remain at home. But when the country 
shall have become entirely at peace, and when the 
provisions of the Homestead Law shall be thoroughly 
known in Europe, we may look with confidence for a 
revival of the vast stream of immigration which, a 
few years since, was seen pouring into our country. 

What this influx has already done for us may be 
learned by looking at the single State of Wisconsin. 
The Legislature of that State found it necessary, in 
1864, to order the Governor's message to be printed 
in eight different languages — English, German, Nor- 
wegian, Irish, Welsh, Holland, French, and Bohe- 
mian. "The North American" remarks, on this 
singular spectacle, that, in Wisconsin, " the old vig- 
orous Teutonic stock is thus largely represented. 
The sons of the Jarls and Yikings ; the descendants 
of Eric and Hengist ; the riders of the sea, and for 



24 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

many generations its rulers — a brave, thrifty, intelli- 
gent, and economical people — are "building up the 
Northwest with a rapidity which is most wonderful, 
and with a strength of basis which cannot be toppled 
over. They have contributed nobly to the nation 
in putting down the rebellion. They will contribute 
even more largely to its future welfare. They draw 
to them, by the irresistible magnetism of prosperity 
and happiness, hundreds of thousands who enjoy 
little of either at home ; they assimilate readily with 
our interests and institutions. Let them continue to 
come. No long period will elapse, nor many gen- 
erations pass to the great majority, before they will 
be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh — wedded 
into our great unity : an element of new strength, a 
means of more lasting national coherence and vigor. 
They are of the pillars which support the power of 
the present and give promise to the future." 

It was the cheap Government lands which drew 
to us all this mixed population of Wisconsin, as well 
as the overshadowing immigration from Germany. 
The still cheaper lands that can now be secured, will 
bring them hither in even greater numbers. The 
census of 1860 shows how powerful has been the 
attraction of cheap farms. The percentage of na- 
tive Germans in this country at that period was as 
follows : 

Wisconsin 15.97 1 California 7.10 



Indiana 14.94 

Minnesota '. 10 . 59 

Illinois 7.65 

Missouri 7 . 50 

Ohio 7.19 



New York 6.61 

Maryland 6.39 

Iowa 5 . 71 

Michigan 5 18 

New Jersey 5 . 03 



AND WHERE. TO FIND ONE. 25 



Pennsylvania 4 . 74 

District Columbia 4 . 33 

Kansas 4 . 03 

Louisiana 3 . 48 

Texas 3.40 

Kentucky 2 36 

Oregon 2.0G 

The Territories 1 . 86 

Connecticut 1 . 85 

Delaware 1.13 

Massachusetts 0.81 

Virginia . 66 



Rhode Island 0.47 

South Carolina . 38 

Tennessee . 35 

Florida 0.34 

Alabama 0.27 

Arkansas . 26 

Mississippi . 25 

Georgia 0.23 

New Hampshire 13 

North Carolina . 08 

Vermont 0.07 

Maine 0.06 



The total foreign-born population of the Union 
was 4,136,175, or 13.15 per cent, of the aggregate 
population. The English formed 1.37 per cent., the 
Irish 5.12, the Germans 4.14:. The number of the 
natives of Germany was 1,301,136. The number of 
Germans (including their children born in this coun- 
try) was four millions. 

When this volume was ready for the press, the 
settlement of the public lands, under the provisions 
of the Homestead Law, was rapidly increasing. 
Some portions of Europe had already been made 
acquainted with our true condition, by means of in- 
telligent agents sent there to circulate facts and in- 
formation ; while the subsequent movement in Con- 
gress in aid of immigration, attracted general atten- 
tion, abroad. Early in 1864, England and Ireland 
began to throw off their swarms of adventurers. 
In April, the American Consul at Liverpool wrote 
to Mr. Seward, as follows : 

" Emigration may be said never to have been so active 
as it is now. It is quite unprecedented. For the past two 
months all the emigrant vessels from Liverpool to the States, 
both with steam and sails, have taken emigrants to their 



26 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

utmost capacity. At the present time there are not half 
enough ships to carry those who want to go. I called this 
morning on two or three of the leading shipping houses to 
ascertain the true state of the business, and will briefly de- 
tail what I learned. Inman's steamers — the Liverpool, 
New York, and Philadelphia line — told me that every pas- 
sage on all their steamers up to the 18th of May next, is 
now engaged, and one-half of those of the steamers to sail 
after this period up to the 1st of June. Guion & Co., and 
C. Grimshaw & Co., two other large houses, told me that 
all the passages on their respective vessels to sail between 
now and the 1st day of June next, are already taken, and 
that they are turning off people every day for want of ac- 
commodations ; that they are so pressed that they do not 
know what to do. They have not half vessels enough, and 
cannot procure them to carry the passengers that want to go. 
What they say will apply with equal force to all the other 
shippers at this port. A large proportion of the emigrants 
have had their passage paid in the States. These have a 
preference. They have raised the price of their tickets for 
passage, within the last few weeks, at least a third higher than 
they were. All the vessels sailing are filled with passengers, 
and the only way emigration can now be increased, so far as 
England and Ireland are concerned, is to increase the means 
of transportation. One of the houses told me this morning 
that they could send out fifty thousand emigrants in two 
months if they had the ships to carry them." 

Here, then, is one way to get a farm. It is, be- 
yond all question, the cheapest, surest, and most 
expeditious of any that can be suggested. It may 
also be the least laborious ; but whether it is the 
most desirable in the end, each aspirant must de- 
termine for himself. It will suit many, but cannot 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 27 

be expected to suit all. To the strong and hardy, 
such as are accustomed to rough work and humble 
fare, it will probably be the easiest method. It 
must be so to thousands, or they would not so read- 
ily embrace it. How such a farm may be put in 
shape, and what it may be expected to produce, 
will be indicated in a future chapter. 

Of this Homestead Law, Mr. Julian, of Indiana, 
thus speaks in his eloquent argument on the bill to 
extend its provisions to the soldiers : 

"Its enactment was a long delayed but magnificent 
triumph of freedom and free labor over the slave-power. 
While that power ruled the Government its success was im- 
possible. By recognizing the dignity of labor and the equal 
rights of the million, it threatened the very life of the oli- 
garchy which had so long stood in its way. The slave- 
holders understood this perfectly ; and hence they resisted 
it, reinforced by their Northern allies, with all the zeal and 
desperation with which they resisted abolitionism itself. Its 
final success is among the blessed compensations of the 
bloody conflict in which we are plunged. This policy takes 
for granted the notorious fact that our public lands have 
practically ceased to be a source of revenue. It recognizes 
the evils of land monopoly on the public domain, as well as 
in the old States, and looks to its settlement and improve- 
ment as the true aim and highest good of the Republic. It 
disowns, as iniquitous, the principle which would tax our 
landless poor men a dollar and a quarter per acre for" the 
privilege of cultivating the earth ; for the privilege of mak- 
ing it a subject of taxation, a source of national revenue, 
and a home for themselves and their little ones. It assumes, 
to use the words of General Jackson, that ' the wealth and 



28 

strength of a country are its population,' and that ' the best 
part of that population are the cultivators of the soil.' This 
bold and heroic statesman urged this policy thirty-two years 
ago ; and had it then been adopted, coupled with adequate 
guards against the greed of speculators, millions of landless 
men, who have since gone down to their graves in the 
weary conflict with poverty and hardship, would have been 
cheered and blest with independent homes on the public 
domain. Wealth incalculable, quarried from the mountains 
and wrung from the forests and prairies of the West, would 
have poured into the Federal coffers. The question of 
slavery in our national territories would have found a peace- 
ful solution in the steady advance and sure empire of free 
labor, whilst slavery, in its strongholds, girdled by free in- 
stitutions, might have been content to die a natural death, 
instead of ending its godless career in an infernal leap at the 
uation's throat." 

In the following extract Mr. Julian foreshadows 
the establishment of another vast land monopoly in 
the South, or rather the substitution of new monop- 
olists in place of the slaveholders, unless the opera- 
tion of the Homestead. Law is extended to the rebel 
States : 

" We shall certainly win ; and our triumph will inevitably 
divest the title to a vast body of land in the rebel States, and 
place it under our control. I think it entirely safe to con- 
clude that it will constitute more than half, and probably 
three-fourths, of all the cultivated lands in the rebellious 
districts. It will certainly, in any event, cover many mil- 
lions of acres. It will include all lands against which pro- 
ceedings in rem shall be instituted, under the provisions of 
the act to suppress insurrections, and to punish treason and 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 29 

rebellion, approved July 17th, 1862; all lands which may 
be sold under the provisions of the act for the collection of 
direct taxes in insurrectionary districts, approved June Tth, 
1862; and all lands which may be sold under the provi- 
sions of the act to provide internal revenue to support the 
Government, approved July 1st of the same year. 

" What shall be done with these immense estates, brought 
within our power by the acts of rebels ? One or two poli- 
cies, radically antagonistic, must be accepted. They must 
be allowed to fall into the hands of speculators, and become 
the basis of new and frightful monopolies, or they must be 
placed under the jurisdiction of the Government, in trust 
for the people. The alternative is now presented, and 
presses upon us for a speedy decision. Under the laws of 
Congress now in force, unchecked by counter legislation, 
these lands will be purchased and monopolized by men who 
care far more for their own mercenary gains than for the 
real progress and glory of our country. Instead of being- 
parcelled out into small homesteads, to be tilled by their 
own independent owners, they will be bought in large 
tracts, and thus not only deprive the great mass of landless 
laborers of the opportunity of acquiring homes, but place 
them at the mercy of the lords of the soil. The old order 
of things will be swept away, but a new order, scarcely less 
to be deplored, will succeed. In place of the slaveholding 
landowner of the South, lording it over hundreds of slaves 
and thousands of acres, we shall have the grasping monop- 
olist of the North, whose dominion over the freedman and 
poor whites will be more galling than slavery itself, which 
in some degree tempers its despotism through the interest 
of the tyrant in the health and welfare of his victims. The 
maxim of the slaveholder that capital should own labor, will 
be as frightfully exemplified under the system of wages 



30 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

slavery, the child of land monopoly, as under the system of 
chattel slavery, which has so long scourged the Southern 
States. What we should demand is, a policy that will 
guarantee homes to the loyal millions who need them, and 
thus guard their most precious rights and iuterests against 
the remorseless exactions of capital and the pitiless rapacity 
of avarice." 

The reading of a law so comprehensive as this 
will naturally induce a belief that, so far as the pub- 
lic domain is concerned, it is a final settlement of 
an angry question. But, unfortunately, this is not 
the fact. Mr. Julian says the overthrow of the 
Homestead Law is already threatened, both directly 
and indirectly. " Since the date of its passage," he 
says, " Congress has granted nearly 7,000,000 of acres 
for the benefit of agricultural colleges, and about 
20,000,000 to aid in the construction of railroads. 
There are now pending before Congress (March 18, 
1864), bills making other grants for railroads 
amounting to nearly 70,000,000 of acres. We have 
a project before us which grants nearly 7,000,000 
of acres for the education of the children of soldiers ; 
another, granting 200,000 acres in Michigan for the 
establishment of female colleges, which, of course, 
would be extended to the other States ; and anoth- 
er, granting 10,000,000 of acres for the establishing 
of normal schools for young ladies. Every day 
witnesses the birth of new projects, by which our 
public lands may be frittered away, and the benefi- 
cent policy of the Homestead Law mutilated and 
destroyed." 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 31 

Here are grants, perfected and in embryo, which 
embrace nearly 115,000,000 of acres of the lands 
which had been consecrated to free homes. Yast 
as is the quantity, the remainder is still large 
enough, as will be seen hereafter, for many millions 
of families. 



32 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



CHAPTER n. 

Number of Free Farms — Population, Present and Future — In- 
crease of Public Wealth — Past and Future Immigration — Gold 
Mines — Farms — Enough for All. 

It is known that when land could be obtained 
from Government at $1.25 per acre, the demand was 
very active, both from settlers and speculators. As 
the same description of lands are hereafter to be 
given away, many persons will presume that they 
will be rapidly absorbed by claimants. But there 
are two potent causes to prevent such result — first, 
the obligation to occupy the land for five years be- 
fore any title whatever can be acquired, and secondly, 
the enormous quantity to be distributed. The fol- 
lowing remarkable statistics on this subject are given 
by Mr. Samuel B. Buggies, in his late report to the 
International Statistical Congress : 

" The territorial area of the United States at the peace 
of 1783, then bounded west by the Mississippi river, was 
820,680 square miles, about four times that of France, 
which is stated to be 207,145, exclusive of Algeria. The 
purchase from France of Louisiana, in 1804, added to this 
area 899,680 square miles. Purchases from Spain, and from 
Mexico, and the Oregon treaty with England, added the 
further quantity of 1,215,907 square miles; making the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 33 

total present territory at 2,936,166 square miles, or 
1,879,146,240 acres. 

" Of this immense area, possessing a great variety of 
climate and culture, so large a portion is fertile that it has 
been steadily absorbed by the rapidly increased population. 
In May, 1863, there remained undisposed of, belonging to 
the Government of the United States, 964,901,625 acres. 

" To prevent any confusion of boundaries, the lands are 
carefully surveyed and allotted by the Government, and are 
then granted gratuitously to actual settlers, or sold for prices 
not exceeding $1.25 per acre to purchasers other than 
settlers. It appears by the report of the Commissioner of 
the General Land-office, that the quantity surveyed and 
ready for sale in September, 1862, was 135,142,999 acres. 
The report also states, that the recent discoveries of rich 
and extensive gold fields in some of the unsurveyed por- 
tions, are rapidly filling the interior with a population 
whose necessities require the speedy survey and disposition 
of large additional tracts. The immediate survey is not, 
however, of vital importance, as the first occupant practi- 
cally gains the pre-emptive claim to the land after the sur- 
vey is completed. The cardinal, the great continental fact, 
so to speak, is this : that the whole of this vast body of 
land is freely open to gratuitous occupation, without delay 
or difficulty of any kind." 

All these lands will necessarily rise in value as 
settlements are scattered throngh them. Our pop- 
ulation is increasing with a rapidity not witnessed 
in any other country, and it is notorious that it is 
population which gives value to land. In 1860, we 
had 31,455,080 inhabitants, of whom 4,441,766 were 
colored, and of these, 3,953,760 were slaves. Hence- 
forth they may be counted as freemen. The increase 

2* 



6± HOW TO GET A FARM, 

of population since the establishment of the govern- 
ment has been as follows, as given by Mr. Ruggles : 

1790 3,929,827, 

1800 5,305,937, increase 35.02 per cent. 

1810 7,239,814, increase 36.45 per cent. 

1820 9,638,191, increase 33.13 per cent. 

1830 12,866,020, increase 33.49 per cent. 

1840 17,069,453, increase 32.67 per cent. 

1850 23,191,876, increase 35.87 per cent. 

1860 31,445,080, increase 35.59 per cent. 

"This rate of progress, especially since 1820, is owing in 
part to immigration from foreign countries. 
"There arrived, in 10 years, — 

From 1820 to 1830 244,490 

From 1830 to 1840 552,000 

From 1840 to 1850 1,558,300 

From 1850 to 1860 2,707,624 

Total 5,062,414 

" Being a yearly average of 126,560 for the last 40 years, 
and 270,762 for the last ten years." 

The rebellion checked the tide of foreign immi- 
gration ; but in 1863 it again commenced setting 
towards our shores. Mr. Ruggles says : 

"The records of the Commissioners of Emigration of 
New York show that the arrivals at that port alone have 
been, for 

From From Tota1 .', i " < fL U ' lin ^ 

Ireland. Germany. £*£ 

1861 27,754 27,159 65,529* 

1862 32,217 27,740 76,306 

1863, up to Aug. 20, 7§ mos.. .64,465 18,724 about 98,000 

"The proportions of the whole number of 5,062,414 ar- 
riving from foreign countries in the forty years from 1820 
to 1860, were as follows : 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 35 

From Ireland 967,366 

From England 302,665 

From Scotland 47,800 

From Wales 7,935 

From Great Britain and Ireland 1,425,018—2,750,784 

From Germany 1,546,976 

From Sweden 36,129 

From Denmark and Norway 5,540—1,588,145 

From France 208,063 

From Italy 11,302 

From Switzerland 37,732 

From Spain 16,245 

From British America 117,142 

From China (in California almost exclusively) 41,443 

From all other countries, or unknown 291,558— 723,485 

Total 5,062,414 

" It is not ascertainable how many have returned to for- 
eign countries, but they probably do not exceed a million. 
If the present partial check to immigration should con- 
tinue, though it is hardly probable, the number of immi- 
grants for the decade ending in 1870 may possibly be re- 
duced from 2,707,624 to 1,500,000. 

" The ascertained average increase of the whole 
population in the seven decades from 1790 to 1860, which 
is very nearly 33 J per cent., or one- third for each decade, 
would carry the present numbers (31,445,080) 

By the year 1870, to 41,926,750 

From which deduct for the possible diminution of j -j q~ p 9 , 
immigrants, as above J ' ' 

There would remain 40,719,126 

"Mr. Kennedy, the experienced Superintendent of the 
census, in the Compend published in 1862, at page 7, esti- 
mates the population of 1870 at 42,318,432, and of 1880, 
at 56,450,241. The rate of progress of the population of 
the United States has much exceeded that of any of the 
European nations. The experienced statisticians in the 



36 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

present Congress can readily furnish the figures precisely 
showing the comparative rate. 
The population of France was, in 



1801 27,849,003 

1821 30,461,875 

1831 32,569,223 



1841 34,230,178 

1851 35,283,170 

1861 37,472,132 



"Being about 37 per cent, in the 60 years. It does not 
include Algeria, which has a European population of 
192,746. 

"The population of Prussia has increased since 183 6, as 
follows : 



1816 10,319,993 

1822 11,664,133 

1834 13,038,970 

1840 14,928,503 



1849 16,296,483 

1858 17,672,609 

1861 18,491,220 



"Being at the rate of 79 per cent, in 45 years. 
" The population of England and Wales was, in 



1801 9,156,171 

1811 10,454,529 

1821 12,172,664 

1831 14,051,986 



1841 16,035,198 

1851 18,054,170 

1861 20,227,746 



"Showing an increase of 121 per cent, in 60 years, 
against an increase in the United States in 60 years, of 
593 per cent. 

"The natural and inevitable result of this great increase 
of population, enjoying an ample supply of fertile land, is 
seen in a corresponding advance in the material wealth of 
the people of the United States. For the purpose of State 
taxation, the values of their real and personal property are 
yearly assessed by officers appointed by the States. The 
assessment does not include large amounts of property held 
by religious, educational, charitable, and other associations, 
exempted by law from taxation, nor any public property of 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 37 

any description. In actual practice, the real property is 
rarely assessed for more than two-thirds of its cash value, 
while large amounts of personal property, being easily con- 
cealed, escape assessment altogether. 

" The assessed value of that portion of property which is 
thus actually taxed increased as follows: In. 1791 (esti- 
mated), $750,000,000 ; 1816 (estimated), $1,800,000,000; 
1850 (official valuation), $7,135,780,228 ; 1860 (official val- 
uation), $16,159,616,068, showing an increase in the last 
decade alone of $9,023,835,840. 

" A question has been raised, in some quarters, as to the 
correctness of these valuations of 1850 and 1860, in em- 
bracing in the valuation of 1850, $961,000,000, and in the 
valuation of 1860, $1,936,000,000, as the assessed value of 
slaves, insisting that black men are persons and not prop- 
erty, and should be regarded, like other men, only as pro- 
ducers and consumers. If this view of the subject should 
be admitted, the valuation of 1850 would be reduced to 
$6,174,780,000, and that of 1860, to $14,223,618,068, leav- 
ing the increase in the decade $8,848,825,840. 

" The advance, even if reduced to $8,048,825,840, is suf- 
ficiently large to require the most attentive examination. 
It is an increase of property over the valuation of 1850, of 
130 per cent., while the increase of population in the same 
decade was but 35.99 per cent. In seeking for the cause 
of this discrepancy, we shall reach a fundamental and all- 
important fact, which will furnish the key to the past and 
to the future progress of the United States. It is the power 
they possess, by means of canals and railways, to practi- 
cally abolish the distance between the seaboard and the 
wide-spread and fertile regions of the interior, thereby re- 
moving the clog on their agricultural industry, and virtually 
placing them side by side with the communities on the 
Atlantic. During the decade ending in 1860, the sum of 



38 

$413,541,510 was expended within the limits of the interior 
central group known as the ' food-exporting States,' in con- 
structing 11,212 miles of railway to connect them with 
the seaboard. The traffic receipts from those roads were : 
In 1860, $31,335,031; in 1861, $35,305,509; in 1862, 
$44,908,405. 

" The saving to the communities themselves in the trans- 
portation, for which they thus paid $44,908,405, was at 
least five times that amount ; while the increase in the ex- 
ports from that portion of the Union greatly animated not 
only the commerce of the Atlantic States, carrying those 
exports over their railways to the seaboard, but the manu- 
facturing industry of the Eastern States, that exchange the 
fabrics of their workshops for the food of the interior. 

"By carefully analyzing the $8,048,825,840 in question, 
we find that the six manufacturing States of New England 
received $735,754,244 of the amount; that the middle At- 
lantic, or carrying and commercial States, from New York 
to Maryland, inclusive, received $1,834,911,579; and that 
the food-producing interior itself, embracing the eight great 
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min- 
nesota, Iowa, and Missouri, received $2,810,000,000. This 
very large accession of wealth to this single group of States is 
sufficiently important to be stated more in detail. The group, 
taken as a whole, extends from the western boundaries of 
New York and Pennsylvania to the Missouri river, through 
14 degrees of longitude, and from the Ohio river north to 
the British dominions, through 12 degrees of latitude. It 
embraces an area of 441,167 square miles, or 282,134,688 
acres, nearly all of which is arable and exceedingly fertile, 
much of it in prairie and ready at once for the plough. 
There may be a small portion, adjacent to Lake Superior, 
unfit for cultivation, but it is abundantly compensated by 
its rich deposits of copper and of iron of the best quality. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 39 

" Into this immense natural garden, in a salubrious and 
desirable portion of the temperate zone, the swelling stream 
of population, from the older Atlantic States and from Eu- 
rope, had steadily flowed during the last decade, increas- 
ing its previous population from 5,403,595 to 8,957,690 ; an 
accession of 3,554,095 inhabitants, gained by the peaceful 
conquest of nature, fully equal to the population of Silesia, 
which cost Frederick the Great the seven years' war, and ex- 
ceeding that of Scotland, the subject of struggle for centuries. 

" The rapid influx of population into this group of States 
increased the quantity of the ' improved' land, thereby mean- 
ing farms more or less cultivated, within their limits, from 
26,680,361 acres, in 1850, to 51,826,395, in 1860; but 
leaving a residue, yet to be improved, of 230,308,293 acres. 
The area of 25,146,054 acres, thus taken in ten years from 
the prairie and the forest, is equal to seven-eighths of the 
arable area of England, stated by its political economists to 
be 28,000,000 of acres. 

" The area embraced in the residue will permit a similar 
operation to be repeated eight times successively, plainly de- 
monstrating the capacity of this group of States to expand 
their present population of 8,957,690, to at least 30,000,000, 
if not 40,000,000 of inhabitants, without inconvenience. 

" The effects of this influx of population in increasing the 
pecuniary wealth as well as the agricultural products of the 
States in question, are signally manifest in the census. The 
assessed value of their real and personal property ascended 
from $1,116,000,000, in 1850, to $3,926,000,000, in 1860, 
showing a clear increase of $2,810,000,000. We can best 
measure this rapid and enormous accession of wealth, by 
comparing it with an object which all nations value — the 
commercial marine. The commercial tonnage of the Uni- 
ted States, in 1840, was, 2,180,764 tons; in 1850, 3,535,454 
tons; in 1860, 5,358,808 tons. 



40 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

"At $50 per ton, which is a full estimate, the whole pe- 
cuniary value of the 5,358,808 tons, embracing all our com- 
mercial fleets on the oceans, and the lakes, and the rivers, 
numbering nearly thirty thousand vessels, would be but 
$267,940,000 ; whereas the increase in the pecuniary value 
of the States under consideration, in each year of the last 
decade, was $281,000,000. Five years' increase would pur- 
chase every commercial vessel in the Christian world. 

"But the census discloses another very important feature, 
in respect to these interior States, of far higher interest to 
the statisticians, and especially to the statesmen of Europe, 
than any which has yet been noticed, in their vast and rap- 
idly increasing capacity to supply food, both vegetable and 
animal, cheaply and abundantly, to the increasing millions 
of the Old World. In the last decade their cereal products 
increased from 309,950,295 bushels, to 558,160,323 bush- 
els, considerably exceeding the whole cereal product of 
England, and nearly if not quite equal to that of France. 
In the same period the swine, who play a very important 
part in consuming the large surplus of Indian corn, in- 
creased in number from 8,536,182 to 11,039,352, and the 
cattle from 4,373,712, to 7,204,810. Thanks to steam and 
the railway, the herds of cattle who feed on the meadows 
of the Upper Mississippi are now carried in four days, 
through eighteen degrees of longitude, to the slaughter- 
houses on the Atlantic. 

" It is difficult to furnish any visible or adequate meas- 
ure for a mass of cereals so enormous as 558,000,000 of 
bushels. About one-fifth of the whole descends the chain 
of lakes, on which 1,300 vessels are constantly employed in 
the season of navigation. About one-seventh of the whole 
finds its way to the ocean through the Erie canal, which 
has already been once enlarged for the purpose of passing 
vessels of two hundred tons, and is now under survey by the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 41 

State of New York for a second enlargement, to pass ves- 
sels of five hundred tons. The vessels called ' canal boats,' 
now navigating the canal, exceed five thousand in number, 
and if placed in a line, would be more than eighty miles in 
length. 

"The barrels of wheat and flour alone, carried by the 
canal to the Hudson river, were, in 1842, 1,146,292; in 
1852, 3,937,366; in 1862, 7,516,397. 

" A similar enlargement is also proposed for the canal 
connecting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi river. When 
both the works are completed, a barrel of flour can be car- 
ried from St. Louis to New York, nearly half across the 
continent, for fifty cents ; or a ton, from the Iron Mountain 
of Missouri, for $5. The moderate portion of the cereals 
that descends the lakes, if placed in barrels of five bushels 
each, and side by side, would form a line of five thousand 
miles long. The whole crop, if placed in barrels, would en- 
circle the globe. Such is its present magnitude. We leave 
it to statistical science to discern and fully estimate the fu- 
ture. One result is, at all events, apparent. A general 
famine is now impossible ; for America, if necessary, can 
feed Europe for centuries to come. Let the statesman 
and philanthropist ponder well the magnitude of the fact, 
and all its far-reaching consequences — political, social, and 
moral — in the increased industry, the increased happiness, 
and the assured peace of the world. 

"The great metalliferous region of the American Union 
is found between the Missouri ri^er and the Pacific Ocean. 
This grand division of the Kepublic embraces little more 
than half of its whole continental breadth. Portland, in 
Maine, is the meridian 70° west from Greenwich ; Leaven- 
worth, on the Missouri river, in 95° ; and San Francisco, on 
the Pacific, in 123°. By these continental landmarks, the 
western or metalliferous section is found to embrace 28°, and 



42 

the eastern division between the Missouri and the Atlantic, 
at Portland, 25° of our total territorial breadth of 53° of 
longitude. 

" It has been the principal work and office of the Amer- 
ican people, since the foundation of their government, to 
carry the machinery of civilization westward from the At- 
lantic to the Missouri, the great confluent of the Mississippi. 
So far as the means of rapid intercommunication are con- 
cerned, the work may be said to be accomplished, for a 
locomotive engine can now run without interruption from 
Portland to the Missouri, striking it at St. Joseph, just be- 
low the fortieth parallel of latitude. In the twenty years 
preceding 1860, a network of railways 31,196 miles in 
length was constructed, having the terminus of the most 
western link on the Missouri river. The total cost was 
$1,151,560,829, of which $850,900,681 was expended in 
the decade between 1850 and 1860. The American Gov- 
ernment and people had become aware of the great pecuni- 
ary, commercial, and political results of connecting the 
ocean with the food-producing interior by adequate steam 
communications. But the higher and more difficult problem 
was then presented of repeating' the effort on a scale still 
more grand and continental ; of winning victories still more 
arduous over nature; of encountering and subduing the 
massive mountain ranges interposed by the prolongation of 
the Cordilleras of our sister continent through the centre of 
North America, rising, even at their lowest points of de- 
pression, far above the highest peaks of the Atlantic States. 

" The Government, feeling the vital, national importance 
of closely connecting the States of the Atlantic and of the 
Mississippi with the Pacific with all practicable dispatch, 
has vigorously exerted its power. On the 1st of July, 1862, 
nearly fifteen months after the outbreak of the existing in- 
surrection, and notwithstanding the necessity of calling into 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 43 

the field more than half a million of men to enforce the na- 
tional authority, Congress passed an act for incorporating 
' The Union Pacific Railway Company,' and appropriated 
$66,000,000 in the bonds of the United States, with large 
grants of land, to aid the work, directing it to be commenced 
at the 100th meridian of longitude, but with four branches 
extending to the Missouri river. The necessary surveys 
across the mountain ranges are now in active progress, and 
the construction of the eastern division, leading westward 
from the mouth of the Kansas river, or the Missouri, has 
actually commenced. The whole of that division, including 
that part of the line west of the 100th meridian to the foot 
of the Rocky Mountains, is on a nearly level plain, and is 
singularly easy of construction. Its western end will strike 
the most prominent point of the auriferous regions in the 
Territory of Colorado, where the annual product of gold, as 
stated in the official message of the Territorial governor, is 
from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000. The gold is there ex- 
tracted by crushing-machines from the quartz, in which it is 
found extensively distributed, needing only the railway from 
Missouri to cheaply carry the necessary miners, with their 
machinery and supplies. The distance to that point will be 
about six hundred and fifty miles, which will be passed in 
twenty-eight hours. When completed, as it easily may be, 
within the next three years, it will open the way for such 
an exodus of miners as the country has not seen since the 
first discoveries in California, to which the American peo- 
ple rushed with such avidity, many of them circumnaviga- 
ting Cape Horn to reach the scene of attraction. 

" Meanwhile a corresponding movement has commenced 
on the Pacific, in vigorously prosecuting the construction 
of the railway eastward from the coast at or near San Fran 
cisco, which will cross the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 
about 7,000 feet, on the eastern line of California, in the 



44 

120th parallel of longitude, and there descend into the 
territory of Nevada, at the rich silver mines of Washoe. 

" It is not yet possible to estimate with any accuracy the 
extent of these deposits of gold and silver, but they are al- 
ready known to exist at very numerous localities in and be- 
tween the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, not to 
mention the rich quartz- mining regions in California itself, 
which continue to pour out their volumes of gold to affect, 
whether for good or ill, the financial condition of the civil- 
ized world. During the last six months gold has been ob- 
tained in such quantities, from the sands of the Snake river 
and other confluents of the Columbia river, as to attract 
more than 20,000 persons to that remote portion of our 
metalliferous interior. The products of those streams alone 
for the present year are estimated at $20,000,000. 

"The Commissioner of the General Land-office, in his 
official report of the 29th December, 1862, states as follows : 

" ' The great auriferous region of the United States, in 
the western portion of the Continent, stretches from the 
49th degree of north latitude and Puget Sound, to the 
30° 30' parallel, and from the 102d degree of longitude 
west of Greenwich, to the Pacific Ocean, embracing por- 
tions of Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, all of New Mexico, 
with Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Wash- 
ington Territories. It may be designated as comprising 17 
degrees of latitude, or a breadth of 1,100 miles from north 
to south, and of nearly equal longitudinal extension, making 
an area of more than a million square miles. 

"'This vast region is traversed from north to south, first, 
on the Pacific side, by the Sierra Nevada and Cascade 
Mountains, then by the Blue and Humboldt ; on the east, 
by the double ranges of the Rocky Mountains, embracing 
the Wahsatch and Wind River chain, and the Sierra Madre, 
stretching longitudinally and in lateral spurs, crossed and 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 45 

linked together by intervening ridges, connecting the whole 
system by five principal ranges, dividing the country into 
an equal number of basins, each being nearly surrounded 
by mountains and watered by mountain streams and snows, 
thereby interspersing this immense territory with bodies of 
agricultural lands equal to the support not only of miners, 
but of a dense population. 

" ' These mountains,' he continues, ' are literally stocked 
with minerals ; gold and silver being interspersed in pro- 
fusion over this immense surface, and daily brought to light 
by new discoveries. In addition to the deposits of gold 
and silver, various sections of the whole region are rich in 
precious stones, marble, gypsum, salt, tin, quicksilver, as- 
phaltum, coal, iron, copper, lead, mineral and medicinal, 
thermal and cold springs and streams. 

'* ' The yield of the precious metals alone of this region 
will not fall below one hundred millions of dollars the pres- 
ent year, and it will augment with the increase of popula- 
tion for centuries to come. Within ten years the annual 
product of these mines will reach two hundred millions of 
dollars in the precious metals, and in coal, iron, tin, lead, 
quicksilver, and copper, half that sum.' He proposes to 
subject these minerals to a government tax of eight per cent., 
and counts upon a revenue from this source of $25,000,000 
per annum almost immediately, and upon a proportionate 
increase in the future. He adds, that ' with an amount of 
labor relatively equal to that expended in California applied 
to the gold fields already known to exist outside of that 
State, the production of this year, including that of Cali- 
fornia, would exceed four hundred millions. In a word,' 
says he, 'the value of these mines is absolutely incalcu- 
lable.'" - 

The foregoing facts and deductions set forth not 



46 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

only the inexhaustible quantity of land now freely 
open to all who choose to occupy it, but refer to its 
variety of character as adapted to suit the diversi- 
fied wishes of the many who seek to acquire farms. 
The farmer can be accommodated with woodland or 
prairie, the lumberman or mechanic with densely 
wooded forest, the miller or manufacturer with 
mill-sites, the miner with either silver, gold, or 
coal. 

The quantity is without limit, and the uses to 
which it may be profitably applied are so numerous 
that the most fastidious applicant may be supplied 
with what he wishes. Millions of families may thus 
obtain farms before the quantity now open for se- 
lection can be appropriated. It will require cen- 
turies to fill it up. Hence those either here or 
abroad, who learn for the first time that farms may 
be had on the simple condition of living on them 
for five years, may entertain no fear that a sudden 
absorption will deprive them of the opportunity of 
obtaining one. It is the monopolists and specula- 
tors who are repudiated, not the actual settler. 

How this national liberality is to affect the value 
of land generally, may be inferred from what has 
followed the abolition of serfdom in Russia. That 
great measure threw open millions of acres to the 
occupancy and ownership of a people who had here- 
tofore only tilled them for the benefit of a master. 
The privilege of obtaining land, even by paying for 
it, revolutioned the feelings and industry of the en- 
tire mass. Emancipation was completely triumphant 
in every respect. All the forebodings of the re- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 47 

actionaries have been disappointed. A recent 
traveller says : 

" There has been no bloodshed, no excess, no social dis- 
order, no decline of industry. Twenty-three millions of 
people have been raised at once from the degradation of 
chattelism to the dignity of freemen, by the fiat of one 
man, in the space of two years, in the face of a most formi- 
dable opposition of nearly the whole Russian nobility. The 
bitterest opponents now admit that as the operation had to 
be performed some time, it was well to do it at once. In- 
tellectual and social energies which had been frozen up for 
centuries, are set free ; the peasantry are a promising race 
of people, and they know how to appreciate the boon of. 
liberty. Among the first financial results is the general rise 
in the price of land all through Russia, at least a million of 
serfs having already purchased the land which they formerly 
cultivated for a master. The Government systematically 
loans money for this object, and all the money which was 
formerly hidden in earthen pots is brought out and invested 
in land. Every peasant feels a new incentive to industry 
and economy, that he may be able to buy land. More 
houses are now built in a year than used to be built in half 
a dozen years. The new wants of the people give a sur- 
prising impulse to trade. The nobility, who used to spend 
their incomes in Paris or in Germany, are coming to live 
on their estates, and spend their lives in seeking to promote 
the improvement of the people. The appraised value of 
property in the kingdom is already enhanced almost beyond 
computation. 

" The educational and religious efforts are equally signal. 
Already eight thousand schools have sprung into existence 
among the peasants, by their own efforts, aided by friends, 
the Government having no hand in it. Two years ago such 



48 

a thing as a day-school among the peasantry was hardly 
known. There is great anxiety to be able to read the laws, 
as well as to read the Scriptures. To meet a pressing de- 
mand, the Church authorities have published the Russian 
New Testament at the low price of sixpence a copy. 

" The changes which have already been made in the mu- 
nicipal arrangements of the country are equally wonderful. 
Within the last two years the cities of Moscow and St. 
Petersburg have for the first time had mayors elected by 
the citizens. In the peasant villages, the chief is elected 
by the people, and all measures are debated and settled, in 
village meetings — the training-schools of freedom, as every 
philosophical observer considers our American town-meet- 
ings. An honorary local magistracy has been created all 
over the empire, of men of character and standing, who can 
execute justice between man and man, repress crime, and 
protect the weak against the strong." 

The benefits to be conferred on this country by 
the Homestead Law are strikingly illustrated by the 
events of the slaveholders' rebellion. It has been 
seen that cheap lands have induced a vast immigra- 
tion, and that by help of this immigration the re- 
public has sprung, in a single lifetime, to the status 
of a powerful nation. Of the whole number of ar- 
rivals, ninety-five per cent, have settled in the Free 
States, and only five per cent, in the Slave States. 
An anonymous essayist presents the following views 
in relation to this part of the question : 

" It is from the armies, raised from the former and their 
descendants, that the Government has been mainly enabled 
to overcome the rebellion. They gave to the nation its 
magnitude, and that magnitude alone has saved us from 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 49 

foreign intervention. Had the bloody ordeal fallen on 
us when possessed of but one-tenth of our present popula- 
tion, there can be little question that the intense hostility 
with which we are regarded by the ruling classes in the 
nations of Western Europe, would have dictated armed in- 
tervention, the forcible opening of the blockade, and, finally, 
the dismemberment of the Republic. If the magnitude of 
our resources and the numbers of our armies appalled our 
enemies, both at home and abroad, it must be borne in mind 
that these were but results made possible by our vast popu- 
lation." 

" Our foes shrank from a contest with a nation which, 
even in the midst of an unexampled rebellion, was still able 
to pour its armies into the field by the million, and to sus- 
tain the Government by an incalculable store of riches. 
Our vast northern and western population has saved it from 
overthrow. If, with this great preponderance of numbers, 
we have found it so difficult to overcome rebellion, it will 
be at once perceived, that, if our population had been no 
greater than that of the South, the task of suppressing it 
would have been a sheer impossibility. Instead of literally 
overrunning the South, and crushing it beneath the mere 
weight of numbers, we should have found ourselves engaged 
in a war ruinously protracted, the end of which, in all hu- 
man probability, would have been a destruction of the Re- 
public." 

Thus all that is dear to us as a united people, has 
depended on a question of numbers. The consider- 
ation of this fact may- not have been embraced in the 
calculations of those who, many years ago, put the 
public lands in market at a low price ; but it became 
a controlling element of the policy which enacted the 
Homestead Law. As the cheap lands have once 



50 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

saved the nation from destruction, so the still cheap- 
er ones may be relied on to- insure its preservation. 

A recent anonymous writer on this subject fur- 
nishes the following appropriate suggestions : 

" The lands given away will be worth far more to the 
country, peopled with an industrious population, than lying 
waste as they now do. They will soon yield up their treas- 
ures of grain or of cotton and tobacco to be exported, and 
to buy goods that will pay a duty to the Government. 
Peopled, they will furnish soldiers for the army, and taxes 
to pay their expenses, should the country need them. Be- 
fore this law was passed, lands were so cheap that every 
man of real energy and industry could obtain a homestead 
if he tried, provided he could raise the means to get on to 
the land. This will be the chief difficulty now. Hundreds 
„and thousands of families, to whom the laud would be a 
priceless boon, will never be able to reach it. They have 
little forecast, are poor and in debt," and pretty much dis- 
couraged. They cannot find constant employment, and do 
not know how to employ themselves profitably. If associa- 
tions could be formed for settling these lands in part by 
such families, it would meet the difficulty. It would help 
them without damao-ino; the success of the new settlement. 
It would secure to them at once homesteads and full em- 
ployment, which they so much need. 

" Many questions are asked concerning this new law by 
those who desire to avail themselves of its advantages. A 
careful reading of the law will answer many of them. The 
lands are to be found in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne- 
sota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and on the Pacific, 
in large extent, and some still in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
though they are probably not of a very inviting character. 
The lands lying along railroads are of double price, and, on 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 51 

account of the proximity to market, are perhaps cheaper at 
that rate. Only eighty acres of these can be taken by one 
individual. 

u The old pre-emption laws are still in force, and a man 
may locate his land, holding by these laws until the 1st of 
January, when he can hold by the new law. There are 
land-offices in the vicinity of all these public lands, where 
the applicant can make known his wants and secure his 
homestead. It will be seen that the matter involves either 
the expense of a personal visit, or that of a delegate, which 
is a serious obstacle to the poor. The best thing that can 
be done, probably, in all cases by those who wish to avail 
themselves of this law, will be to form an association for the 
settlement of a township, say a hundred families or more, 
and send out an agent to examine and locate the lauds in a 
body. The advantages of planting a whole Christian com- 
munity in the wilderness at once, over private emigration, 
are too apparent to need mention here. 

" A farm for ten dollars is only the raw material of a 
home. Houses, barns, fences, roads, bridges, churches, 
school-houses, and other public buildings, are to be provided 
after the colony is located, and these things bring heavy 
taxes upon every individual for a dozen years or more. A 
man getting a living at the East should think twice before 
he goes into the wilderness. It is young men just married, 
or about to be, men with large families and scanty means 
of living, and professional men with small fields of labor, 
that can take this step with the best prospects." 



52 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 



CHAPTER III. 

What makes Land valuable — Prices balancing each other — 
How poor Men pay for high-priced Farms — A practical Illus- 
tration — A Farm for the Right Man. 

While it is thus seen that there are millions of 
families who desire no better homestead than such 
as can be secured by settlement on the public do- 
main, it is well known that there are other millions 
who prefer remaining in the neighborhood in which 
they were born. They prefer hard work there to 
hard work in the West. That region is new, and 
large portions of it are comparatively unsettled. 
The other is old, and possesses all the conveniences 
and comforts of a long-established civilization. Re- 
lations and friends are there concentrated, and 
among them they prefer remaining. It furnishes a 
quick market for all productions of the earth, and 
at better prices. Fruits and vegetables, which, on 
a thousand prairie farms, would find no purchaser, 
are here salable in every town or city. Here the 
consumers are collected in great crowded marts, 
while there they have not yet had time to congre- 
gate in equal masses. 

Land within the seaboard region is consequently 
more valuable, and, as a general rale, is unattainable 
by small capitalists in proportion to its value. But 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 53 

its ability to yield quick and certain returns makes 
its possession extremely desirable. Its money-pro- 
ducing power is enormous, because of its nearness 
to a dense population of consumers. As to tins 
fact it owes its chief value, so, from the same fact, 
the small capitalist who becomes possessed of it is 
enabled to pay for it by the ready and profitable 
market he finds for all that it may produce. 

Thus price has its compensations. If the cost of 
land be high, the value which its productions com- 
mand in the market is generally in exact proportion. 
High price for land, and low price for products, 
would be ruinous to the farmer. But let the latter 
maintain a just relation to the former, and if the 
land be skilfully worked with distinct reference to 
the most profitable crops it can be made to yield, 
the lapse of a few years will enable the industrious 
owner to make full payment. Wheat may be grown 
with profit on a prairie farm which the owner ob- 
tained as a gift, because for that grain there is a 
cash market at the nearest railroad station. But 
asparagus and cabbages would perish on the grow- 
er's hands. Wheat can be shipped to Europe, and 
hence its universal salability ; but the vegetables 
must find purchasers within short distances of the 
spot where they were grown. So, on the other 
hand, the man who cultivates high-priced land 
within the suburbs of a great city, will lose money 
by raising wheat, while by cultivating asparagus 
and cabbages he will be certain to grow rich. The 
West can undersell him in wheat, but cannot com- 
pete with him in vegetables. Hence the proper 



54: HOW TO GET A FARM, 

adaptation of crop to location is absolutely indis- 
pensable to success. 

It has been shown how the poor man can gratu- 
itously obtain a farm where he may not happen to 
be desirous of locating. It remains to be shown 
how he can get one where he does desire to settle. 
To promote this laudable ambition of those whose 
whole capital is industry and labor, much has been 
already written by ingenious and generous men. 
Their views and plans have been different, as well 
as numberless. It is remarkable, however, that 
while some of them propose methods which would 
require a lifetime to make successful, none of them 
present difficulties too great to be in some way over- 
come. I refer now, as well as throughout these 
pages, to the man who is sober, industrious, am- 
bitious of success, saving, and possessed of ordinary 
intelligence. The poverty of such may be an in- 
convenience, but it is no insuperable bar to progress. 
The men whose characters are the reverse, I do not 
write for. It is they who, instead of acquiring 
farms, invariably lose them. It will also be seen 
that feeble health need be no fatal discouragement, 
and that some men have succeeded even when com- 
paratively disabled by incurable bodily infirmity. 

A practical farmer, writing in the Albany Coun 
try Gentleman, in 1862, gives the following as his 
method of getting a farm with no cash capital to 
begin with. His article is in reply to a writer in 
the same paper, who wishes to know how to get a 
farm without money or capital at the outset, and 
who says that there are. no drmht. manv men in our 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 00 

country who commenced life under similar circum- 
stances, who have risen to be successful and inde- 
pendent farmers. The reply bears the signature of 
" F.," and is as follows : 

" Having commenced life under circumstances substan- 
tially the same as those described by your correspondent, 
and having thought much on this subject, and no answer 
having appeared as yet, I have concluded to try and see 
what I can do towards helping him, and others in similar 
circumstances, in their laudable efforts to get a farm. 

" Well do I remember the intense thought and study 
with which I first turned my attention to farming as a 
means of getting a living. Having failed in other business, 
for want of the capital without which I had always sup- 
posed I could not succeed in farming, I was casting about 
and considering what to try next, when for the first time I 
came across some agricultural publications, which were 
read with all the interest of an exciting romance, and 
which at once led to a determination to make farming the 
business of my life. But here I was met by the same 
difficulty as your correspondent. I had no land, nor nothing 
to buy with. I was in a strange country, with no friends 
to assist me in beginning, except such as by industry, 
economy, and fair dealing, I was able to make. Yet I 
have succeeded so far, beyond my most sanguine expecta- 
tions ; while my farming prospects are not only improving 
every year, but they are better now than ever before. 

" But in answering your correspondent, I do not propose 
to go into the details of my own experience, but rather, as 
briefly as may be, try to point out the best course for young 
men to pursue, in order to succeed in getting farms. I am 
led to take this course, not only by the reluctance felt by 
most men of laying their private business affairs before the 



56 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

public, but because, in giving the combined results of read- 
ing, observation, and experience, I believe I shall be able 
to more effectually assist G. B. S. and others in similar 
circumstances. 

" One of the greatest difficulties encountered by young 
men, in trying to get a farm, is to get a start, or in other 
words to get the first $500. Almost any young man that 
will go to work, and earn and lay up that amount of 
money, may, with good habits, and industry, and economy, 
be sure of sooner or later owning a good farm. It cannot 
be too strongly impressed on the minds of all young men, 
that the great starting point in their fortune, is to earn and 
lay up the first $500 or $1000. Not only for the help that 
amount will be in gaining more money, but in firmly fixing 
in their minds the principles of industry, economy, and 
self-denial, which are to be the foundation of their future 
success. 

" The most usual course taken by farmers' sons to get 
this start, is by working out by the month for farmers ; and 
perhaps it is the best course open to thousands of young 
men in our country. But a large portion of these young 
men are only able to get work for seven or eight months of 
the busy season, leaving them idle during the winter and a 
part of the spring and fall. The wages they will earn in 
this way, will not enable them to lay up money very fast. 
Hence the enterprising young man that is determined to 
succeed, will either be sure to hire out by the year, or teach 
school through the winter, or find some kind of job-work, 
by which he will be able to make good wages all of the 
time. He will also keep in mind, that by continual faith- 
fulness, care, and attention, to the business of his employer, 
he will not only be earning and getting much higher 
wages than others, but he will be forming habits of care 
and attention, that will be highly useful as long as he lives. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 57 

By taking this course, a young man ought to lay up $100 
a year, and many will lay up more. We will suppose he 
commences when he is 21, and when he is 25 has saved $5500. 

" Now, what is the best course for a young man that has 
earned, or by some other means come in possession of $500, 
who wishes to get a good farm ? He desires, and ought to 
have one worth $4,000 or $5,000, or more, and with him 
the very important question is, what is the best course for 
him to take to get it ? Now, without taking into consid- 
eration the question of going into a new country, in pursuit 
of cheap land, I conceive he must choose one of the fol- 
lowing courses : He will either continue to work out, or he 
will take or rent a farm, or he will buy and commence 
farming on a small farm. It being necessary, in order for 
any one to pursue either one of the two last courses, to 
have some capital, it is not considered that there is the 
same necessity for working out after a man has $500 that 
there was before. Consequently, he may now be considered 
as fairly in a condition to take his choice between the 
three courses here pointed out. And, as undoubtedly there 
are many, in different parts of the country, that may find 
it desirable to follow each of these different ways, and 
many more desiring all the information they can get, in re- 
gard to the best course to pursue, perhaps it will be best 
to bestow some attention on each of these ways to get a 
farm. 

" First, in regard to working out. This is a very simple, 
plain, straight-forward way to get a farm. It is only a con- 
tinuation of the course already pointed out for those who 
have to start with nothing for an indefinite period of time, 
which will be longer or shorter in proportion to the amount 
desired to commence with. The advantages of this course 
are presented in a very favorable light by Hon. J. W. Col- 
burn. He says : 

3* 



58 

" ' Now let us for a moment look at the matter, and see 
what the real obstacles are which are to be overcome by 
the resolute } r oung man of 21 years of age, who says, 'I 
will own a good farm.' His father has had the benefit of 
his labor up to this time, and is unable or unwilling to give 
him any thing to start in life. His whole capital consists in 
muscular strength, good health, good will, self-reliance, and 
correct principles. He takes the best wages he can get of 
a responsible farmer in the neighborhood — say $15 per 
month for the year, board and washing included. He pur- 
sues this course for seven years ; his economy has taught 
him that $60 per year is sufficient for clothing and other 
expenses, leaving $120 at the end of each year to put at 
interest. At the age of 28 years he has earned and put at 
interest $840. What the several annual interests have been 
I will not stop to enumerate. It is sufficient to say that he 
has a sum sufficient to start him handsomely in a new 
country, with a half section, 320 acres, paid for, and means 
enough left for an outfit to commence successful operations 
upon his new farm. In 22 years more, with ordinary good 
luck, how will he be likely to stand ? He is now 50 years 
old, and a man of wealth, and probably of character and 
inlluence. 

" ' Or take another view of it. Suppose at the age of 28 
he should say, I don't think much of this emigrating, there 
is some risk in the change of climate ; I like my old asso- 
ciations ; my friends are here, my home scenes are dear to 
me; the girl of my choice is unwilling to go to the far 
west, or into a new country ; I will settle in my own neigh- 
borhood. He buys an improved farm with fences and com- 
fortable buildings, say 100 acres, at $20 per acre — pays one- 
half down, balance in ten years, interest annually. What 
will now be his condition at 50 years of age ? Perhaps not 
as wealthy as in the first case, with equally good luck in 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 59 

both, for the advance of his land in value above cost in the 
former case would have been a little fortune; but he has 
made a sure thing of it as it is, has lived healthily, and saved 
a competency for all future wants.' 

" Mr. Colburn further states that ' this is not an overdrawn 
picture. It is what has transpired within the observation of 
the writer, and at a time too when farm wages were lower 
than the prices here named, and much lower than at the 
present time.' 

" Now it will be admitted on all sides that these extracts 
place this part of the subject in the most favorable light ; 
that in fact it would seem that there can scarcely be any 
need of, even if there is any room for, saying any thing 
more on this side of the question ; therefore it only remains 
to briefly allude to some of the objections that young men 
may find to pursuing the course so favorably presented. 

" The first objection will be in regard to wages. It will 
be said, and with a great deal of truth, that such wages are 
a good deal higher than young men that work on a farm 
are generally able to realize. And to this it will be added 
that in most of the older settled sections of the country 
$800 or $1,000 goes but a little way towards paying for a 
good farm. Consequently, it will be said a young man will 
have to work out a great deal more than seven years, in 
most cases from twice to three times that length of time, 
before he can even pay half down for a good farm, to say 
nothing of the money that will be needed to begin farming 
with. 

"Perhaps there is nothing that a spirited, enterprising 
young man would view with greater reluctance than the 
proposition for him to make up his mind to work out for 
from ten to twenty years of the best of his life in order to 
get the requisite capital to commence the business of farm- 
ing with. He will probably say that he has not so much 



60 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

objection to working out a few years in order to get a few 
hundred dollars to start with. But as to working out that 
length of time, it is useless to talk about it ; he is not going 
to do it. Point him to some one that has succeeded in this 
way ; he will admit it, but say this is an exception, not the 
general rule, and will point to many men that have failed 
of ever getting farms by working out, and will say that no 
man with a growing family on his hands can lay up any 
thing, to say nothing of saving enough to buy a farm ; while 
there are few young men that have not formed ties and 
made arrangements, that are not to be put off for a very in- 
definite period. Hence, put the case in as strong a light as 
we may, or argue it ever so strongly, it will be of little use. 
Consequently, those that would persuade young men to stick 
to farming, and undertake to point out a way whereby they 
may get a farm, will, in most cases, have to show them some 
other way besides working out. Yet it cannot be denied 
that young men do not always sufficiently appreciate this 
way of getting a start in the world ; that in many cases it 
is the best thing a single man can do as long as he remains 
single, and that many that have left it for other business 
would have done better if they had not made the change. 

" But we must pass on to consider the second course for 
a young man to take, in order to get a farm. Renting a 
farm, or taking one on shares, is, next to owning one, what 
seems to suit young men the best. G. B. S.- seems to have 
had this course in his mind ; but says that ' renting a farm, 
the way it is done in this part of the country, is not very 
desirable. It generally goes on the " skinning process," mak- 
ing it profitless to both parties.' Now here is the main dif- 
ficulty, not only as to those taking farms, in finding this a 
good ' way to get a farm,' but with those having farms to 
let. It is a fact well understood on all hands, that, as poor 
business as taking or renting land may be, there are many, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 61 

in all parts of the older sections of the country, that would 
be glad to get farms to work if they could. In this 
section, whenever there is a good farm to be let, there are 
sure to be from eight to ten, and sometimes a score or more 
applications for it. While at the same time there are many 
that would like to let their farms, were it not for this one 
difficulty — they are sure to be worked on the skinning sys- 
tem ; which, while it gives them but little present profit, is 
injuring, if not ruining their land. Hence, I would impress 
on the minds of all, young or old, in the strongest language, 
and in the most earnest manner, the great mistake they 
make in thinking that, because they are working another 
man's farm, they cannot afford to farm well ; that they are 
taking a course that not only gives them but little present 
profit, but one that, more than perhaps any thing else, tends 
to deprive them of the chance of getting what little they 
do have ; and that not only will they realize a much greater 
present profit, by as good farming as the circumstances will 
allow, but should it be the case that at first they are not 
able to get a good farm, but have to take up with rather 
inferior, or badly worn land, they may be sure that, if they 
are doing their best, it will be known and observed, and 
they will have no trouble in getting better land when they 
wish to make a change. 

"The advantages of this course maybe made still plainer 
by taking a case, many of which may be found in all of the 
older sections of the country. The owner of a 100-acre 
farm, that has not only made the principal part of his prop- 
erty out of his farm, but has brought up, educated, and 
given his children more or less of a start in life, and who 
has found, by experience, that one-half of the produce of 
his land will support him satisfactorily, wishes to let his 
farm, if he can get a tenant that will farm well. Though 
he well knows that he could make more by hiring his work 



62 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

done, yet he wishes to relieve himself and family from the 
trouble of taking care of the farm, and hired help. Now 
why can't a tenant, if a young man with a small family, 
take that farm and go on and make money, and, at the 
same time, keep the land in good condition % The owner 
made money, and kept the land improving ; why may not 
the tenant make money, and at least keep the land in its 
present condition ? I see no reason why he can't, nor do I 
believe there is any — except poor management. 

" Again, let those that think they can't afford to farm well 
on another man's land look to England. Much of the best 
farming in that, or perhaps any other country, is tenant farm- 
ing. Not only does the tenant have to pay enough, in rent 
and taxes, to buy land in many sections of this country, but 
he spends thousands in manuring, and other improvements. 
Indeed, it is said that his rent, taxes, and other farm ex- 
penses are so large, that he is obliged to cultivate his land 
in the best manner ; that he could not get along without 
doing so. Yet he lives well and makes money ; and it is 
said that many tenant farmers do so well, and are so well 
satisfied, that they prefer remaining tenant farmers, even 
after having made money enough to buy and have land of 
their own. 

" Now allow me to ask, why may not something like this 
be the case here ? Why may not an American be a good 
tenant farmer as well as an Englishman ? Have not our 
young men as much enterprise, intelligence, and ability, as 
the same class anywhere, and are they not as anxious to 
make money and go ahead ? Then why not make the busi- 
ness of taking or renting land, one of the best courses a 
young man can take to get a start in the world ; instead, as 
is too often the case, making it a losing business for all con- 
cerned ? 

" But it will be said, taking for granted that tenant farm- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 63 

ing may be made to pay well, how are all that may wish to, 
going to get land to work ? It has already been intimated 
that the demand for farms was much greater than the 
supply ; hence it must be admitted that, though it may be 
a very good way to get a farm, for those lucky enough to 
get a good farm to work, yet many will fail, because there 
are not farms enough to be let to supply the demand. This 
being the case, we will pass on to consider the third and 
last course proposed for a young man to pursue in order to 
get a farm. 

" This course, as well as taking land, is more particularly 
calculated for a married man. Though the single man that 
is able to get good wages and steady employment, may do 
very well, yet when he gets married he wants a home, and 
generally the sooner he gets one of his own, the better. 
Time and space forbid giving even a tithe of the reasons 
why every man should have a home of his own. All are 
more or less familiar with these reasons ; and as undoubted- 
ly one of the principal reasons why G. B. S. wishes to get 
a farm, is to have a home, I need only state that I have 
found, both by experience and observation, that a small 
piece of good land, even though there may be but a few 
acres, is a great help to a laboring man that wishes to get 
along in the world. Here, again, time will not admit of re- 
ferring to the many instances of large amounts of produce 
grown on a few acres of land, that I have come across in 
reading and observation. But I must pass on, only stating 
that few young men are aware of how small a place may be 
made to give them more net profit for their labor than they 
can realize by working out. 

" Another advantage in having a small place is, that it 
will enable the owner to do something at both farming on 
his own land and working out. Whenever I have seen this 
step in advance (which it surely is) taken by a man of 



64 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

industry and economy, I have always observed that he went 
ahead much faster than he did when depending on his labor 
alone. So, too, a small farmer will often find chances to 
take land by the piece, of farmers having more than they 
can or wish to cultivate, thus enabling him to add to his 
farming operations sufficiently to give him all the business 
he can attend to, and giving him quite respectable profits. 

"But leaving working out, or taking land, out of the 
question, few that have not tried it, or investigated the sub- 
ject, are aware of how few acres will keep a man profitably 
employed during the busy season. In a former article on 
farming on a small farm, I have given estimates of what can 
be raised on ten acres, and also on twenty acres. These 
estimates, though much less than is often realized, will give 
a good idea of what may be raised on a small place, it being 
kept in mind that by changing works for team-work, the 
owner may do nearly all of the work himself, making his 
expenses out scarcely any thing to speak of, and enabling 
him to realize the full benefit of all he raises. 

" Another great advantage in getting a piece of land as 
soon as possible is, it forms a beginning — a something to add 
to. Young men when working out, or working land, and 
having no particular present need or use for their money, 
are apt to spend it, or allow it to slip away for something 
that, in their circumstances, they might better do without. 
But if they have land that they wish to finish paying for, 
or to make improvements on, or, finding their little place 
insufficient for their wants, and aided by the stimulating 
effects of actual ownership, they are anxious for more land, 
they will be sure to save all they can to buy more with. 
When this course is once fairly entered on, they will be 
pretty sure to follow it up until they are each one the owner 
of a good farm. 

" Before concluding, I wish to present one or two consid- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 65 

erations that are very important for young men of limited 
means that wish to get farms. The first is, that in taking 
any course that will be open to them, they may not be able 
to make money as fast at the beginning as may be deemed 
desirable. It is very natural for young men to make large 
calculations at the start. They have a very laudable ambi- 
tion to go ahead and make something, and be somebody ; 
hence they are apt to think that any course they may be able 
to take is too slow to ever accomplish any thing. But this 
is a mistaken idea. Let any one that doubts this sit down 
and reckon up what a man that earns $100 over a living 
every year from the time he is 21 until he is 50, and puts 
it at interest at V per cent., adding the interest to the prin- 
cipal each year, will have when he is 50 years old — or say 
in 30 years. I say, let him do this and he will be surprised 
to learn that he may be a comparatively rich man, by tak- 
ing this course, when he is 50 years of age. As a further 
illustration of this fact, I will mention a few instances that 
have come under my own observation, one of a man that 
died worth over $10,000 in cash, that made it, all but a 
small legacy, by working out and the interest on his money. 
Another, that is now some 35 or 36 years old, that has be- 
tween $3,000 and $4,000, all made by working out, and the 
accruing interest on his wages. And yet another that saved 
$900 in six years. All this shows most conclusively that, 
though either of the courses I have pointed out may seem 
rather a slow way on the start, yet, if persevered in, and all 
of the money, as fast as realized, invested in some manner 
whereby the interest is sure to be realized, they are sure to 
lead to the desired success, — while hundreds, perhaps thou- 
sands, have done a great deal better than this by investing 
their labor and money in farming in such a manner as to 
realize much larger profits. 

" The other consideration, with which I shall conclude, is 



m 



HOW TO GET A FARM, 



that every young man that wishes to succeed should make 
himself familiar with the agricultural literature of the day. 
He should not only read and keep for future reference some of 
the best agricultural journals of the day (of which I wish to 
say that the Country Gentleman stands at the head), but he 
should be familiar with some of the best practical works on 
farming in the country. He will find this a great advantage, 
if he works out, in enabling him not only to work to much 
greater profit and advantage to his employer, and thus get- 
ting the extra wages that will be his due for highly intelli- 
gent labor, but in showing him how the knowledge gained 
by his present experience may be turned to his future 
benefit when farming for himself. Or, if taking or renting 
a farm, in learning how to manage it to the best advantage, 
both as regards present and future profits. Or, if farming 
on a small place, not only in learning what may be and 
has been done on a little farm like his own, in differ- 
ent sections of* the country, but in learning how he may 
manage his few acres to the best possible advantage. But 
above all else, he will find it of the greatest advantage 
in enkindling in his mind an ardor for, and an enthusiasm 
in the business of farming, that, enabling him to triumph 
over every obstacle, will be sure, sooner or later, to bring 
him to the desired haven of success." 

These original suggestions drew forth a second 
reply in the same paper, under the signature of 
" K. S. F.," as follows : 

" A correspondent inquires, How he can get a farm with- 
out money or capital to buy it with or to conduct the business 
of farming t I can answer his question in two words. Take 
mine ; with this proviso, however, that he understands prac- 
tically and thoroughly the profitable management of a farm, 
and has a character in all respects equal to his practice and 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 67 

his knowledge. He is looking for a farm ; I am looking 
for a farmer who can take hold of the soil in a way to im- 
prove it and his own condition at the same time. My farm 
lies vacant and unimproved, because no one appears that 
can satisfy me of his capacity to do this. I can find plenty 
of men who would be glad to buy the farm upon a credit, but 
who would never pay for it, and who would tease, depreci- 
ate, and worry it to no purpose. I can find others who are 
ready to rent it for a stipulated sum, or upon shares ; but 
no one has ever appeared that possessed sufficient qualifica- 
tions to manage the business, to keep the farm improving, 
and to do this. If he prospered, it would be tolerably cer- 
tain that his success was at the expense and not by aid of 
the land. 

" This farm is accessible to good markets, and contains 
six hundred acres of land of every variety, clay and light ; 
plenty of meadow, salt and fresh ; abundantly supplied with 
wood ; with never-failing sources of water, and surrounded 
with schools, churches, etc. Now I am willing to sell this 
farm upon a reasonable credit ; or, I am willing to let it to 
a responsible, improving tenant, at a low price, whenever I 
can find a man of the right sort to take it, with a condi- 
tion attached to the lease, that the tenant shall have 
the right to purchase it at an agreed price within a given 
period. 

" A tenant usually grows rich on a farm, for the reason 
that he usually goes upon it with a view of laying up enough 
money to pay for a farm of his own elsewhere. He carries 
from the hired farm in his breeches pocket all the scrapeable 
value he can ; it has been made poor to make him rich — 
in other words, he has transferred the fertility of the one to 
the fields of the other by a sort of electrotyping process, 
whose transmutation in soils, are in such hands as sure as 
they are by the labors of chemistry in metals. 



68 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

" Now, Messrs. Editors, when you have followed me thus far, 
should I stop, you would editorially ask, Why not advertise 
your wants in the Country Gentleman ? I answer, because 
if I did, I should have no end of applications from this very 
class of people that I wish to save my land from. I am 
diligently seeking for an experienced, money-making, land- 
improving farmer ; but, in the mean time, my house, now 
old and shabby, is rotting away, and my barns will soon fol- 
low in one general decaying, destructive sweep. Shall we 
ever have schools of agriculture, from whose portals, as they 
graduate, one can find a competent agent, tenant, or the 
purchaser of a farm, who has learned the art of making it 
pay for itself?" 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 69 



CHAPTER IV. 

More Opinions and Experiences— Some Objections — Additional 
Light — Encouraging the Young — A personal History — Getting 
an Illinois Farm — One Example — Good Suggestions — Buying 
and going in Debt — Value of the Discussion. 

The discussion thus opened drew out, as may be 
supposed, the views of other practical men to eluci- 
date the important question as to the best way of 
getting a farm. The following is the commentary 
of another intelligent observer, Mr. J. W. Colburn, 
of Springfield, "Vermont. Referring to the sugges- 
tions made by "F.," as quoted in the preceding 
chapter, he says : 

" His advice cannot but be regarded, by those to whom it 
was intended to benefit, as very sensible, and in the main 
correct. He points out three ways to be pursued to accom- 
plish the object sought for, viz. : Working out for wages, 
taking farms upon shares, and beginning with a few acres 
at first, enlarging as means are saved to invest, seeming 
rather to give the preference to this last method over the 
two first. Circumstances, with regard to land and labor, 
may be such in his locality as to make his views correct ; 
but with all due deference to his opinion, to suit the locality 
in which I reside, I should ask him to reverse his opinion, 
and put the working out for wages to get a start in life at 
the head of his three ways to get a farm, as decidedly pref- 
erable to either of the other two. 

" If the first thing that a young man thinks of and must 



70 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

do, after arriving to the years of his majority, and destitute 
of means, is to get married, as is often the case, then he 
must do the next best way that he can — take a farm on 
shares, or purchase a few acres ; but it will be but a few 
acres, in four cases out of five, that he will ever be likely to 
pay for and own. I know it is a divine command to ' mul- 
tiply and replenish the earth,' and that it is good for a man 
to provide himself with a ' help-meet,' but we are told also 
that there a l re times and seasons for all things, which may 
be interpreted to mean a proper time and season, leaving 
every man to be his own judge and monitor as to what is 
best and proper to suit his own case and circumstances. 

" But how few there are that can look back and review 
the past events of their lives, the most prominent ones, such 
as have influenced their career for good or evil, and say 
they have acted wisely or judged correctly ! Man is the 
creature of impulse, more or less improvident and reckless, 
acting from influences that surround him, without stopping 
to take "the ' sober second thought,' and often makes ship- 
wreck of his future well-being in life, when by a more pru- 
dent, discreet, and judicious course, all might have been 
smooth, bright, and prosperous. It is desirable and pleasant 
for a young man to seek a home — to make a home of his 
own. The associations attached to that word, home, sink 
deep in the human, heart. But no young man should be in 
such haste to realize this inestimable blessing, as to turn it 
into a curse. A home that is surrounded with poverty and 
want is no home ; and more particularly is it so when not 
brought about by any unavoidable misfortune, but the result 
of miscalculation, acting from other motives than those of 
a prudent and discreet foresight. I never can advise any 
young man to incumber himself with a young family to 
support until he has the means, and can see his way clear 
to do it creditably and comfortably. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 71 

" F. gives us an instance of a man that died ' worth 
$10,000 in cash, that made it all but a small legacy by- 
working out and the interest on his money.' ' Another that 
is 36 years old, that has between $3,000 and $4,000, all 
made by working and the accruing interest on his wages.' 
' And yet another that saved $900 in six years.' These 
cases show most conclusively that working out on a farm 
by a young man starting without means, who is determined 
to own a farm, is the shortest and surest way to accomplish 
that praiseworthy and desirable object. Had either, or all 
of these cases, detested working out, as many young men 
do, and got married at the start, and relied upon taking 
farms upon shares, or upon running in debt for a few acres, 
think you at the same period in after-life they could have 
shown these results ? I tell you they could not, but prob- 
ably would have seen an old age of destitution and want. 
I know at the present day there is an antipathy among our 
young men to working out on a farm. As F. says, it is useless 
to talk to them about working out ten or fifteen years in 
order to enable themselves to become owners of good farms. 
The process is too slow ; some more rapid way must be 
contrived ; but the effort rarely proves successful, and the 
farm is very seldom owned. In olden times, farms, and 
good ones too, were often obtained by this patient and per- 
sistent industry, coupled with strict and rigid economy. 
True, they cost less then than now, but farm-wages com- 
paratively were as much lower then than now as the farms 
were lower, while every article of clothing was 50 per cent, 
higher than they were previous to our present war prices. 

" I have known many independent farmers that com- 
menced life by working out for wages, but a precious few 
that commenced by taking land upon shares, or by pur- 
chasing a few acres, that ever were the owners of productive 
farms. This working land upon shares, or the product of a 



72 

few acres, must necessarily be absorbed by the support of a 
family, while the young farm-laborer should, and generally 
does, remain without a family until he is able to purchase 
a farm and see his way clear to pay for it. While working 
out, it is not convenient to have a family, but almost indis- 
pensable when working a farm upon shares. F. says that 
when a farm is to be let on shares in his section, six or eight 
applicants appear, to improve the opportunity ; and why is 
it so ? The reason is obvious. Having commenced in this 
way, they do not rise above it. They can support their 
families, and that is all they can dc» while the single man, 
at work for wages, is placing his hundreds at interest. 

" It is not in good taste for a man to say much about 
himself, but if your readers will pardon the egotism, I will 
relate, briefly as possible, a sketch of personal experience. 
The writer remembers well, when a young lad, of listening 
to the stories of several farmers, most of whom he was in 
the habit of drawing out by questioning and inquiries, as 
to how they commenced life, and how they obtained so 
much property, etc. A rebuff from no one of them for 
being an impertinent boy was ever experienced, believing 
now that they deemed his object to be something more and 
better than an idle curiosity. The information obtained in 
this way served as an exciting purpose with the young in- 
quirer to stimulate his ambition to do likewise, and become, 
like them, a man among men of independent means. He 
pursued the same course that he now recommends to others. 
Working out upon the farm was the beginning ; the most 
untiring application and persistent industry for thirty years, 
has brought results beyond his most sanguine expectations, 
and he has no cause to regret his early determined resolu- 
tion. 

" Why is this farm-work for hire so much to be dreaded ? 
It is frequently the case that the hired man, though in one 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 73 

sense a farm-servant, works no harder than his employer ; 
he does not have the care and perplexity on his mind that 
the owner does ; fares equally with the family, and at the 
expiration of the year has more surplus cash to put at in- 
terest than the man who has employed him. What has 
been done by some men can be done over again by others. 
If our fathers commenced in this small and patient way, 
and became men of wealth, of character, and of influence 
and standing in society, so can our young men of the present 
day, and in many less years than it took them to gain their 
position. 

" The reader of modern history will recollect that when 
the first Napoleon appeared at the head of the French army 
in Italy, then but 27 years old, that he astonished the old 
veteran generals of Europe by his new military tactics. 
His rapid movements, his furious onsets, they were not pre- 
pared to expect, and much less to resist. Where did this 
prodigy learn this new art of war ? When in captivity on 
the desolate rock of St. Helena he let out the secret. He 
had studied closely the history of Alexander the Great. It 
is said that he always carried about with him the life of 
this great Grecian conqueror. He knew that the world as 
it was in that ancient day, never could have been conquered 
only by the rapid and determined means brought to bear on 
the enemies of Greece ; and he reasoned with himself, and 
correctly, too, that what man had done, man could do again ; 
and firmly relying on this principle, he put the same means 
in force, varying as the means of warfare had varied, but 
keeping steadily in view the rapid blows and the determined 
energy and zeal that gave the Grecian universal empire. To 
a very great extent he did over again the work of Alexander, 
and caused every throne in Europe to tremble, though all 
combined, finally overthrew him. 

" This is a far-fetched analogy, but it is none the less true. 
4 



74 

What man has done, man can do again. It only requires 
the determined will, the energetic hand, the unremtted per- 
severance, and the patient, long-enduring application, and 
almost any object, legitimate and honorable in its end, can 
be reached. I say then to young men, beginning life with- 
out means, having a taste for the business and desirous of 
owning farms, ' you can do it if you will.' You cannot be 
any more destitute at the start than was he who now ad- 
dresses you. The times and circumstances now are vastly 
in your favor, over those of forty years ago, and I bid you 
God-speed." 

Tins expression of opinion was followed by a re- 
joinder from " F.," to this effect : 

"Messrs. Editors — In former volumes of the Country 
Gentleman there have been several articles on buying farms, 
which were mainly calculated to benefit those with plenty 
of money to buy with ; while there has been very little, if 
any thing, given, calculated to show those with limited 
means how they can buy to the best advantage. So, too, 
those writing on this subject have generally seemed to con- 
sider or take it for granted, that it will not do to run in debt 
for land, although it is a very common practice in most, if 
not all parts of the country, to do so. 

" Now, without stopping to consider whether it will do to 
run in debt for a farm or not, or the amount of capital a 
man should have to commence with on a given number of 
acres, I shall take it for granted that as a great many have 
run in debt more or less for farms, which they have not 
only succeeded in paying for from the produce of the land, 
but have also, by the same means, attained to forehanded 
and often independent circumstances ; and as the example 
set by such men is constantly before those anxious to attain 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 75 

to the same station in life, a great many will still continue to 
run in debt for land, any thing I might be able to say to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 

" True, many fail, and not a few farms are badly run down 
and injured by men in debt ; yet this need not necessarily 
be the case, but may rather be considered the result of bad 
management in buying, cultivation, etc. But, however this 
may be, it will not prevent others from running in debt. 
So, that instead of a fruitless endeavor to persuade men to 
not run in debt, I believe it is better to try to assist those 
that may find it best to do so. 

" Of course no specific rules, but only general directions, 
can be given as to when a man's pecuniary means will ad- 
mit of his buying a farm. There is so much difference in 
the price oNand in different sections, as well as in its pro- 
ductiveness, that while in some new sections where land is 
cheap and a long time given to pay in, a man with a few 
hundred dollars may buy one' hundred acres or more, in 
many of the older sections he would need as many thousands 
to buy the same amount of land. But leaving new lands 
out of the question, when should a man buy in those sec- 
tions where land ranges from $20 to $100 or more an acre ? 
As a general rule, I believe he may buy when he is able to 
pay half down for a farm, and stock it with a moderate al- 
lowance of farm-stock suitable to the system of farming he 
intends to pursue, together with suitable teams, tools, etc., 
to begin with. And as a man that intends to pay a heavy 
land debt should not allow small debts to accumulate on 
his hands, so he should never begin by making a heavy 
debt on his land, and another large one for teams, 
stock, etc. 

" Again, the amount it will do to run in debt must de- 
pend, in a great measure, on the time and chance to pay, 
the buyer may be able to get. As when $2,000 or $3,000 



76 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

are wanted in three or four years on 100 acres, it would 
be well to hesitate, while it might be safe to agree to pay 
that amount in ten years ; so, too, it will be found more 
difficult to pay a given amount in large payments of from 
$500 to $1,000 each, than it will to pay the same amount 
in $100 or $200 payments. The best way, where a large 
debt has to be made, is to take a deed and give a mortgage, 
payable annually in such sums as the buyer is sure he can 
pay besides interest, with the privilege of making the pay- 
ments faster, should he wish to do so. Then, by managing 
to keep one or two payments ahead, he will never be dis- 
tressed to make his payments in bad seasons, nor be obliged 
to sell when produce is ruinously low. This is substantially 
the course taken in buying my present farm, and I have 
found the advantages named, as well as others that might 
be given, a great help in making my payments. 

" Another point that should be well considered, is what 
kind of a farm is it best to buy ? It is generally said, that 
it is best to buy a good farm, in a good state of cultivation, 
with good buildings, etc. This is undoubtedly true as re- 
gards those with plenty of money to buy with ; and such 
farms are sometimes the cheapest for those with limited 
means. There are many farms where the land — naturally 
good — is in a fair to good state of cultivation, with moder- 
ate but good comfortable buildings, that can be bought for 
reasonable prices. Such farms, though they may not be 
cried up as the best, it is always safe to buy. While those 
farms that have the reputation of being the very best in the 
country, and are cried up to the highest rate, it may be well 
to pause before purchasing. It may be well to consider 
how much of this credit of being an extra good farm may 
be due to an extra good farmer, and also whether the high 
price such a farm is sure to be held at, is wholly due to the 
superior condition of the soil, buildings, etc., or whether a 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 77 

part of it may not be ascribed to the high reputation in 
which the farm is held. 

" But there is another class of farms that I wish to more 
particularly recommend to those wishing to make their 
money go as far as possible in buying land — which is those 
farms that, though naturally good, have been run down 
more or less. There are many of this class of farms in all 
parts of the country. They have been and are usually occu- 
pied by poor farmers, that — whether owners or tenants — 
generally do the work to halves, and only raise half crops, and 
as they seed down but little, if any, their farms soon have a 
very poor, barren appearance, causing their reputation to go 
down very fast, and often causing them to be sold for much 
less than their real value. That is, while the high reputa- 
tion of extra farms causes them to sell for all or perhaps 
more than they are really worth, the bad name and poor 
appearance of badly run farms, often leads to their being 
sold for much less than their actual value. True, the farm- 
er that commences on a badly run farm, will have to adopt 
some course of improvement by which the soil may be again 
made productive, or it would not do to run in debt for the 
farm. But it will not be very difficult to do this if the land 
is naturally good, and has only been run down by poor cul- 
tivation and neglect. I hold it an undoubted fact, that nat- 
urally good land cannot be thoroughly run down and worn 
out without a more thorough working and course of cultiva- 
tion than such farms usually receive ; and also, that much 
of the credit that is often ascribed to this or that course of 
improvement, is due to the latent goodness of the soil, de- 
veloped by more thorough cultivation. Of course, before 
buying, we should be sure that the land is naturally good, 
and that its present bad appearance is due to poor cultiva- 
tion and neglect, instead of a more thorough course of 
cropping on the skinning system, by which the soil is actu- 



78 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

ally worn out. Yet such cases as the last are rare, as real- 
ly thorough cultivation is generally found in connection 
with some system or course of management by which the 
soil is improved instead of being run down. 

" There are other reasons for buying this class of farms 
by men of limited means. One is, that such farms not 
being generally as salable as those in good condition, a 
much longer and better chance to pay may usually be ob- 
tained. Another is, that by good management and culti- 
vation, such farm may soon be made to bear an altogether 
different appearance, which, with the good crops that will 
be raised, will be sure to greatly enhance the character 
and reputation of the farm, and make it sell for a hand- 
some advance on the cost ; while its enhanced value and 
productiveness w T ould be no less real and satisfactory 
should the owner not wish to sell. But some one will 
say, if badly run farms can be improved and made to pro- 
duce good crops, by men more or less in debt, what 
thousands will wish to know is, how it can be done ? This 
I shall endeavor to show in another communication." 

This communication drew the following from a 
hitherto silent observer of the discussion, Mr. 
Jonathan Talcott, of Rome, N. Y. After stating 
that he has carefully read the articles of Mr. Col- 
burn and of " F.," he says : 

" I beg leave to dissent from their views as expressed in 
their communications, and take the middle ground, as 
spoken of in the articles referred to, and shall advocate it, 
and advise such young men as Mr. Colburn speaks of to 
adopt that plan in getting a farm. 

" Let us briefly look at the qualifications mentioned. He 
is to be ambitious and energetic. Now, we suppose Mr. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 79 

Colburn means a laudable ambition, such as is becoming 
any young man to possess, and energy also to persevere 
under difficulty (if need be) ; and, in his closing sentence, 
he adds, ' What man has done, man may do again.' Also, 
'that it requires the determined will, the energetic hand, 
the unremitted perseverance, and the patient, long-enduring 
application, and almost any object legitimate and honorable 
in its end can be reached.' 

" Such, then, are the qualifications, if I rightly under- 
stand Mr. Colburn, that the young man wishing a farm 
must possess, and such Mr. Colburn advises — in order to 
become the owner of a farm in the shortest possible time — 
to work out by the month on the farm for a period of from 
ten to fifteen years, as circumstances may require ; and to 
substantiate his position, he quotes the following sentence 
from F.'s communication in the Country Gentleman: *F. 
gives us an instance of a man that died worth $10,000 in 
cash, who made it all but a small legacy by working out, 
and the interest on his money. Another that is 36 years 
old, that has between $3,000 and $4,000, all made by 
working, and the accruing interest on his wages. And yet 
another that saved $900 in six years.' Mr. Colburn then 
says : ' These cases show most conclusively, that working 
out on a farm by a young man starting without means, who 
is determined to own a farm, is the shortest and surest way 
to accomplish that praiseworthy aud desirable object.' 
Also, he adds : ' Had either or all of these cases detested 
working out as many young men do, and got married at 
the start, and relied upon taking farms upon shares, or upon 
running in debt for a few acres, think you at the same 
period in after life they could have shown these results ?' 
Mr. Colburn then answers the question decidedly in the 
negative, saying — ' I tell you they could not, but probably 
would have seen an old age of destitution and want.' The 



80 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

language used by Mr. Colburn is very strong and decided, 
and perhaps it may be considered presumption in me to 
gainsay it. Viewing it in the light of my own experience 
and observation, I consider his views, as expressed in the 
answer quoted, as containing errors, and calculated to mis- 
lead those whom he desires to benefit by the advice given 
in his letter from which I have taken the extracts already 
quoted ; and relying on Mr. Colburn's forbearance towards 
one who may differ from him in opinion, will briefly give 
my views on the subject. 

" F. does not say that the men mentioned made the sums 
credited to them by working out on a farm as farm hands, 
although Mr. Colburn assumes as much, and the price 
mentioned by F. in his first letter, when he quotes from 
Mr. Colburn's previous writing, at $15 per month for the 
year, is higher than the average in this county for the past 
twenty years. I think $150 per year is full an average for 
the best hands for the time mentioned ; some of the time 
above, and some below that price, some not getting that 
price ; but we are talking of the ambitious and energetic 
young man who is determined to become the owner of a 
farm in the shortest possible time, who has it to earn by his 
own labor. 

" We see, from what has been written by F., and also by 
Mr. Colburn, that from $100 to $150 per year can be saved 
by such men under the most favorable circumstances ; prob- 
ably $120 would be more than an average in the cases that 
have fallen under their observation, and in this vicinity it 
would be under that estimate. 

" Now we will look at the other side of the picture, 
keeping in view in the mean time the qualifications that the 
young man must possess. We will suppose him to be 21 
years of age, with good health and all the requisites men- 
tioned by Mr. Colburn, and that he has formed associations 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 81 

with some young lady of his acquaintance, who also pos- 
sesses the same qualifications, but she also is without means 
to purchase a farm, although . that is the object of their 
ambition, to attain which they are ready and willing to 
unite their interests in the realities of wedded life, and 
commence in earnest to acquire the desired object. In the 
light that Mr. Colburn views it, they will probably fail ; 
but viewing it in the position that I take, they will succeed, 
and much sooner than they would if both worked for 
wages, having the same end in view, viz., a good farm. 

" Such a couple can easily secure a good farm on shares 
from a good landlord in this State, and probably in most of 
the States of the Union, and instead of saving $100 to 
$150 per year, can, with the blessing of Providence, lay 
by from $300 to $500 per year, with more advantage on 
their side than to remain single. For instance, if they 
remain single, and are sick, all income is stopped, while if 
either is sick when married, and on a farm, crops and ani- 
mals are still growing, and there is one (if only one is sick) 
to look to the interests of both. Besides, how much more 
congenial to human nature to have a companion to share 
with each other our joys and sorrows, either in prosperity 
or adversity ! Also, what young lady of the qualifications 
mentioned would not prefer to join her destiny with a 
young man of like qualifications at once, and begin the 
great battle of life in earnest, and having conquered, as 
they surely will, all obstacles at the age of thirty or forty 
years, look back with pleasure upon their commencement 
and struggle for a farm, and feel that, with their united 
efforts, w T ith the blessing of a kind and heavenly Father 
resting upon them, they have succeeded beyond their 
most sanguine expectations. Perhaps, too, at that age sons 
and daughters may have grown up around their fireside to 
gladden their hearts, who will soon go forth in the wide 

4* 



82 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

world to conquer the obstacles, either real or imaginary, 
that may arise in their path. Think you there would have 
been as much* enjoyment and genuine home-feeling had 
they remained single in the mean time ? I think not. I 
have in my memory at this time numerous instances, such 
as I have mentioned, when, at less than fifty years of age, 
persons that were married in early life, and have worked 
farms upon shares, have made their thousands, and pur- 
chased farms of their own, and are still in the prime ot 
life ; also some that have told the writer of this that they 
did not want to own a farm, as they could make more 
money in working land belonging to others than to be 
the owners themselves. 

" Such have been my observations while engaged in work- 
ing out the problem for myself; for, at eighteen years of 
age my prospects, in regard to property, were dark enough 
(my father having died ten years previous without prop- 
erty ; consequently, myself and mother were left to rely upon 
our own exertions for a livelihood). For three years I 
worked out on a farm for wages ; that is, from the time I 
was eighteen years old till I was twenty-one. I will not say 
that I had the qualifications mentioned by Mr. Colburn ; 
but I may say that I saved what I earned, and tried to do 
my best for my employer. At the age of twenty-one years 
I made arrangements to take a farm with a view of pur- 
chasing. Soon after, I married a young lady that knew my 
circumstances, and that the farm had to be earned if we 
ever wanted one. We commenced in earnest. Before we 
were thirty years of age the desired object was attained, 
and we were better off, in dollars and cents, than the cases 
cited by F., which Mr. Colburn quotes ; besides, we had 
been at home all the time while we were engaged in paying 
for it. 

"As for the expenses absorbing all the income in working 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 83 

a farm upon shares, as mentioned by Mr. Colburn, that has 
not been the case with those of my acquaintance. The ex- 
penses in such cases with such a couple will be light, and 
they will save from $3 -to $5 in such a situation, where but 
$1 would have been saved by the working-out system. 

" Now, I do not deny that many young persons will fail 
to accomplish the results I have stated ; but such would fail 
if single, not having the required qualifications. I could 
mention cases where, when single, not a dollar was saved, 
when as soon as the same young men were married their 
earnings were saved, and a competence was the result in a 
short time. 

" The expenses of a family are never so light as at the 
commencement, and any young woman with the qualifica- 
tions to match the young man, as given by Mr. Colburn, 
will, instead of adding to his burdens, lighten them in very 
many ways, which I need not mention at this time ; besides, 
he will doubtless have the blessings bestowed on him, de- 
signed by his Creator, when he said, 'it is not good for man 
to be alone,' who also created ' an help-meet for him.' There 
is no doubt but the same injunction- is now resting on the 
human family as in the earliest stages of the world, and we 
shall do no wrong by heeding the injunction. 

" In conclusion, I would advise all such young men as 
mentioned by Mr. Colburn, and all others that think they 
have the qualifications mentioned, that the sooner they get 
married after they arrive at the age of twenty-one years, 
and a suitable situation offers to take a desirable farm, the 
sooner they will become the owners of such a farm for them- 
selves; and that, instead of a young woman being an incum- 
brance, as Mr. Colburn intimates, she will be a real help, 
and they will save from their united earnings in the ratio I 
have mentioned ; besides, she will be a sharer in his joys, 
and grief, if he has any, which he doubtless will, as trials 



84: HOW TO GET A FARM, 

are the common lot of humanity. She will also cheer him 
on in all his successes, looking at the object to be attained 
on its brightest side, thus proving most conclusively her 
ability to perform her part in the task they have allotted 
themselves — which, with God's blessing, they will surely ac- 
complish." 

A writer, under the signature of "A Farmer's 
Son," now threw into the common stock of informa- 
tion the following brief summary of a very interest- 
ing personal history : 

"Having read in the Country Gentleman several ways 
for a young man, desirous of obtaining a livelihood by farm- 
ing, to do, I thought perhaps a few ideas I might suggest 
would not be out of the way. Although young and inex- 
perienced myself, in the ways of working and by the means 
of which a farm is obtained, I have often heard my father 
speak of his experience, some ofwhich I will briefly relate. 
At fifteen years his mind was fully made up to be a farmer. 
To that he devoted his energies, and boy though he was, 
was fully assured that he would have no other vocation. 
At eighteen he bid adieu to father and mother, and started 
with nothing but an axe, which was all the kind parent 
could give, but his blessing, and a piece of bread and 
cheese from the thoughtful mother. He left the parental 
homestead, travelled thirty miles, there found employment, 
and from that day to this never has known want. For the 
next five years he labored partly by the month, and also by 
working farms on shares. In those days, when working a 
farm on shares, you boarded with the family, including 
washing, and had one-third of the profit. In the next five 
years he laid up $500 — was then married, bought a small 
farm for $750, paid $250 down, with five years to pay the 
balance. He worked it eight years, then sold, and was 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 85 

worth at that time $2,100. Worked a farm on shares for 
two years — was then worth $3,100. Then bought a farm for 
$4,500, having it so arranged that the payments would be 
made from the grain and meat raised on the farm. When 
that was paid for, he sold again and bought another for $8,200. 
By improving in fencing and building, the farm is now 
worth $13,000. Many young men, who commenced with 
nothing, have now good homes, surrounded with all the 
comforts of life. Working a farm on shares, he thinks is 
quite as profitable for a young man as working by the month." 

The importance of avoiding an unfavorable loca- 
tion, will be seen by attending to the description of 
farm-lands in the neighborhood of Jamestown, New 
York, as given bj Mr. W. H. Benson, in the fol- 
lowing article : 

" Again, in regard to the best way for a poor young man 
to get a farm : I think the discussion on this subject has 
not yet touched bottom, and that much more might be 
said that would be of advantage, at least to some lone one. 
Working out by the month, and earning enough to buy a 
farm, would, in my humble opinion, bring a young man so 
far past that title, that, in nine cases out of ten, he would 
go down to the grave ' gray and sorrowing,' with the ob- 
ject of his lifetime still far in the distance. As to taking 
farms or working land on shares, I think that would be the 
best and only way : but even then it must be sought under 
favorable circumstances. In this locality it would be up- 
hill business, and the reason why is this : In the first place, 
the price of farming land is about double its real value for 
farming purposes. Secondly, the landowner asks double 
the rent that the tenant can afford to pay, and if the tenant 
takes a farm on shares, the bargain will be something like 



86 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

this : The farm will be poor, for no good ones are to be 
let. The young man must do all the work, pay all the 
taxes, repair miles of old tumble-down fences, and make a 
certain amount of new — repair and fix up the old house 
and barns, build his own sheds, hog-pens, &c. ; cut, in the 
aggregate, about ten acres of brush around stumps, in fence 
corners, &c, then put in all his spare time to picking up 
stone and rubbish, and drawing them from the meadows. 

" Then he must find his own team, tools, and stock (if 
he has any), keep it on his own half of the hay and grain, 
and pasture for the owner of the farm an equal amount of 
stock. He must then give one-half of all the produce of 
the farm, and will be allowed to stay but one year ; and 
why ? because the farm is now in shape, and the owner can 
afford to work it himself, or rent it to some one that will 
agree to pay twice the rent he will ever be able to. Would 
it not be a good way for a young man to rent a good farm, of 
a good man, in a good locality (where he can make it an 
object for himself and landlord also), with the privilege of 
buying, and the rent, in case of purchase, to apply on the 
purchase-money ? At least that is the opinion of one who 
intends to try it when a favorable opportunity occurs." 

So far the West had taken no part in this discus- 
sion, though evidently watching its progress, but 
now she claims a hearing, as will appear from the 
following remarks of Mr. J. B. Porterfield, of Cham- 
paign, 111. His representations are in striking con- 
trast with the discouragements suggested by Mr. 
Benson : 

"We have been some amused at the correspondence 
which has been published in your paper since the inquiry 
was made as to the best way for a poor man to get a farm. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 87 

Mr. Benson, of Jamestown, N. Y., gives a gloomy account 
indeed of those who intend to try to buy a farm. The idea 
of giviug one-half of all raised, besides hauling rocks, cutting 
so many broad acres of brush, building pig-pens, making 
sheds, &c, all for the privilege of living on a poor farm — 
(Mr. B. Assures us that none but poor ones are offered foi 
rent) — looks more like a joke than a reality to a Western 
man. 

" I am not accustomed to writing letters for publication, 
nor am I in the habit of giving advice, but after reading 
such gloomy accounts as those given since the inquiry was 
first made, I determined to try my hand at it. And now 
I would say to all those who have the pluck to try to get 
a farm under such disadvantageous circumstances as Mr. 
Benson speaks of, to pull up stakes and come to Illinois, 
where we will bid him a hearty welcome, where there are 
no stones to pick, nor brush to cut around stumps and in 
fence corners, and where, if you persist in renting, your 
landlord will ask one-third of the grain raised, pay all 
taxes himself, and furnish you with house, fuel, &c. But 
still a better way would be to buy a farm for yourself 
should it be only 40 acres. Mind, our lands are not en- 
cumbered with rock, brush, &c. But your whole 40 acres 
is a perfect garden spot, and all the stock you may have 
can roam on the prairies at large, which are covered with 
a luxuriant growth of grass of the best kind for either 
pasture or hay. 

" Now, you will probably be ready to inquire what such 
land can be bought for? It will cost from $3 to $10 per 
acre, unimproved, and from $5 to $20 improved, and this 
on almost any time the purchaser may desire. The Illinois 
Central Railroad Company have, as you are aware, obtained 
from the general Government a large grant of land to aid 
them in the construction of their road, which has been 



88 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

built, and hence the title is perfect. The company are 
selling their lands now, and thousands of just such men as 
your correspondent seems to be are availing themselves of 
the liberal terms to secure to themselves homes, and thus 
avoid renting lands, or in other words, becoming landlords 
instead of being tenants. Their terms are as follows : 

" Say Mr. B. buys a farm of 40 acres, at $5 per acre — 
$200. If paid in cash down, a reduction of 20 per cent, 
will be made — $160, which will be the entire cost. If the 
purchaser choose to avail himself of the time given, it 
would be thus : $200 at 6 per cent, for four years, $12 per 
year ; at the end of said time one quarter of the principal 
comes due — $50, which amount comes due annually until 
the principal is paid ; — thus enabling Mr. B. to make the 
price of his new home from the land itself. According to 
an act of our State Legislature, all their lands are exempt 
from taxation until paid in full, which is of itself consider- 
able inducement at a time like the present, when high 
taxes stare every man in the face. 

" I have thus endeavored to give the outline, hoping it 
may lead those who are laboring so hard to become lords 
of the soil, to examine into the matter, at least. I would 
say further : This is a healthy place ; good pure water is 
abundant; society is good. Now, gentlemen, let me ad- 
vise you to quit renting lands in New York, or any other 
place where you have such hard taskmasters, and where 
the lords of the soil ask double what the lands are worth. 
Should you happen to ever be able to buy yourselves homes, 
come West ; we invite you to no mean country, but to the 
garden of the world. This is admitted on all hands. 
Illinois is but an infant in years ; still she is the fourth 
State in population, and in the amount of grain raised, and 
the amount of cattle and hogs, the first in the family of 
States. We will welcome you with open arms to our 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 89 

broad prairies and fertile soil, and where the inhabitants 
are loyal to the best form of government the sun ever 
shone upon, where the people respond to their chief exec- 
utive whenever he calls ; and I will here say, and I must 
confess with feelings of pride, which the past proves, our 
people are ready and willing to leave friends and pleasant 
homes, and rally at our country's call. It matters little 
whether our quota be 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, or 100,000 
men, we are ready, and will respond. Our cattle are all 
fat, our hogs also ; our granaries are full of small grain, 
which now command a good price. Our corn is all 
worked, and nothing now remains but to take it off. Our 
mothers, wives, sisters, aud daughters say, let all the men 
go if necessary ; we will gather the corn. Thus you see 
we are ready." 

A cheering example of success, with continued 
comfort during an entire life, is contributed to the 
discussion by Mr. IN". Reed, of Amenia, New York : 

" Those examples of successful farming where young men 
have been able, in a few years, to pay for and improve their 
farms, seem, to many, extreme cases of success, and excep- 
tions to the general rule. The more usual conditions of 
attaining the possession of a good farm, are many years of 
industry and careful management. The profits of farming 
are moderate, and the acquisition of a good estate by this 
calling requires more patience than by any other. And 
this is the reason why many young men turn from this to 
some more promising profession. They are in haste to pos- 
sess *the means of setting up a comfortable establishment, 
and cannot think of waiting for years for an independence, 
and turn therefore to some business which promises a for- 
tune in what they are pleased to call a reasonable time. 
They mean to have a farm and gratify their rural tastes, 



90 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

when they shall have made money enough by some profita- 
ble business to be able to do so. 

" It is not my purpose now to show how often these 
young men are disappointed, and how they are deceived in 
their views of the enjoyment of rural life. My object is to 
give a word of encouragement to those who may be tempted 
to shun the slow way of getting an estate, and my lesson 
shall be drawn from the experience and observation of more 
than twenty-five years. The experience of a large number 
within my observation, during this time, may be considered 
embodied in one case, which is probably a fair sample of a 
very large number all over the land. 

" A young man began his career by working for his father 
at stipulated wages, which he continued a few years, until 
his ability was fully tested, when he took the manage- 
ment of a farm on shares. The time at length came when 
he would have a farm of his own, which he purchased with 
much solicitude and many fears of ultimate success in pay- 
ing for it. His former accumulations, together with a small 
patrimony from his father's estate, was not sufficient to pay 
for half the cost of the farm and stock, and he often wished 
himself on a smaller place, and out of debt. The farm he 
purchased, like many others of that day, had been pretty 
hardly run with crops of grain, and was much out of repair. 
There was an enterprise requiring good courage and perse- 
verance. Our farmer had three principal things to do : he 
had his family to support, which was not small, his debt to 
pay, and his farm to improve. It is sufficient to say that he 
carried these on together every year. There was no year 
but at the end of it he had, besides paying the interest and 
improving his farm, paid something upon the principal, gen- 
erally however a little less than he had anticipated. He 
had not only these things to do, but he must sustain the so- 
cial position which his family and his education entitled him 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 91 

to. His civil, social, and religious relations must be main- 
tained. Not one of these was neglected ; he stood in his 
place as an American citizen, and took upon himself all the 
duties and responsibilities of his station. In this respect he 
avoided an error which most young men in debt fall into, 
who in their impatience are ready to forego almost the com- 
forts of life, ignore most important social relations, and leave 
all improvements till they are out of debt. They are will- 
ing to deny themselves and their families all the elegancies 
of life, and make themselves mere drudges to obtain first 
a competence ; and, when this is accomplished, they find 
themselves unfitted by their habits and associations for a 
true enjoyment of what they possess, have become sordid, 
and are only satisfied with increase of gain. But our farmer 
improved his place with many tasteful though simple em- 
bellishments, and his mind by reading and good society, 
and this without any great expense of time and money. He 
rejected the principle that a man ought to make as much 
money as he can. 

" He accomplished what he undertook, in paying for his 
farm. Not quite as soon as he expected (the gray hairs be- 
gin to crown his head), for he had his share of the reverses 
of business, and it might seem a long time ; but when he 
had paid his debt, he had a complete farm, a good estate, a 
competence. For, as I said, he improved his farm yearly, 
so that the productive capacity of it is more than doubled, 
and the net profits are in still s greater proportion ; the 
fences are good, and the buildings greatly enlarged and im- 
proved, and the stock of the farm increased in number and 
value. So that what cost him ten thousand dollars is now 
worth more than twenty thousand dollars. 

" Now, the very thing which our fast young men picture 
to themselves as the desired end of all their anxious toil 
and hazardous speculation, a quiet enjoyment of rural life, 



92 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

he has possessed from the beginning of his career. He has 
not denied himself one of the real blessings of life. All the 
healthful and satisfying delights of labor he has enjoyed 
without many of its anxieties. What a zest it gives to his 
labor that he is improving and embellishing what is to him, 
and what will be to his children, a beloved home." 

As appropriate to the subject in hand, a writer, 
under the signature of a B," contributed the follow- 
ing sensible remarks : 

" A farm should be the home, and its management the 
business of the owner. It is true, one may be hired or 
worked on shares, but very seldom do we see land, cultivated 
under such circumstances, managed in a way worthy of the 
name of farming. Ownership seems necessary to a proper 
appreciation of the characteristics and powers of the soil. 
We again see a movement in the real estate market — sales 
and purchases of farms, and it suggests some thoughts on 
what one should look to and seek for in buying a farm. 

" Considered as the homestead and abiding place of the 
owner, a farm should be pleasantly and conveniently situa- 
ted. The health, comfort, and happiness of those who oc- 
cupy it, are of the first importance ; so every social and 
physical influence which bear upon them should have due 
weight in determining a choice. A healthy locality should 
be considered far above a fertile soil. The thousand things 
which promote home-comfort will compensate for many pe- 
cuniary disadvantages. Happiness, the enjoyment of social 
privileges and blessings, go far to make a sterile soil of 
greater value than the most productive, where a moral 
miasma prevails. A situation of easy access to the great 
routes of business and mails, with educational and religious 
privileges of a high class, would be considered of the high- 
est importance by the intelligent and cultivated man, who 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 93 

would enjoy the best privileges of American life and so- 
ciety. 

" Another thought. The new location should be suited 
to the tastes and character of the purchaser. Men of ma- 
ture age are usually of fixed habits and dispositions, such as 
do not change with a removal to another home. They 
should find then, in the new, the best pleasures and con- 
veniences of the old, and as many improvements as may be. 
But if circumstances require any considerable change, it 
should be remembered that to make it will require some 
exertion and energy — they must expect this, or meet disap- 
pointment. Their children may find a happier and better 
life in the new locality — the sacrifice of old habits can be 
made for their sakes. 

" As a business, the requisites of successful farming de- 
pend to a considerable extent on the choice of the farm. 
It should be one which the owner has the means and the 
understanding to manage. One cannot put all his capital 
in land, and expect to farm profitably on credit and make- 
shifts — often so cramped that all improvements are out' of 
his reach. As well might the merchant put his whole cap- 
ital into a fine store, reserving nothing to purchase the goods 
wherewith to fill the shelves and attract customers. It re- 
quires as much capital to stock and carry on a farm gener- 
ally, as to pay for the land itself. The farmer needs capital 
to keep his credit good — to take advantage of the markets 
in buying and selling, and in making seasonable improve- 
ments. A farmer loses money who is compelled by want 
of money to sell his crop at the lowest stage of the market, 
or who cannot command extra labor in any emergency of 
the season, or who is obliged to wait for years to get a few 
hundred dollars to drain a swamp that would pay him the 
interest on a thousand dollars as soon as the work was 
done. 



94 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

" The farm should be suited to the products which it is 
desired to devote it to. The taste and experience of the 
owner will incite him to undertake certain branches of farm- 
ing, but some soils are best calculated for grain-growing, 
others will produce extra fruit, others have grass and water 
for the dairy, or stock generally, while occasional locations 
are to be found where all these may be combined to a greater 
or less extent. These things should be taken into account 
in buying a farm. 

"Then market facilities .are to be considered. In the 
management of a farm much depends on this, and it is a 
matter of moment whether it will cost five cents or fifty to 
bring a dollar's worth of produce to the consumer. In the 
vicinity of large towns the production of garden crops is 
often very profitable, while at a distance from market no 
dependence can be put on such products. The one can 
grow a large variety to dispose of — something every week 
bringing in the cash — while the other - must necessarily 
devote himself to a few leading articles, his harvest oc- 
curring but two or three times a year. But the recent 
great increase in the means of transportation has done much 
to equalize the value of farming lands throughout the coun 
try, especially when devoted to the more valuable and least 
bulky articles of produce. 

" Ag am > a farm should possess in itself good capacity of 
production, so that it may be readily and profitably man- 
aged, in such a way as to retain and increase the fertility 
of the soil. A farm easily worn out — a course of manage- 
ment rapidly exhausting the fertility of the soil, would soon 
bankrupt the farmer ; his business would no longer be re- 
munerative ; his home and his comforts would soon pass 
away. Hence it is not all to buy a farm ; one must also have 
the skill to manage it rightly. To do business profitably, 
one must understand business principles and carry them 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 95 

out, and nowhere is this more important than upon the 
farm. The question is often debated whether farming is 
really profitable or not ; but, could we only see the fortunes 
lost by the careless habits of those who pursue it, the de- 
cision would soon be arrived at." 

These remarks drew " F." once more into the 
arena, in the following communication : 

"B. has some very good remarks on buying a farm, 
with the most of which I fully agree. But the general tenor 
of the fourth paragraph is not of that general practical 
character that is best calculated to benefit the great mass 
of American farmers. True, it looks and sounds well on 
paper, and could we have farmers made or got up to order, 
giving to each one the amount of land or capital he is or 
may be capable of farming or using to the best advantage, 
it would be all correct. But this is not the case. Instead 
of having sufficient capital to buy stock and carry on their 
farms to the best advantage, the great mass of farmers have 
had to make and get together the principal part of this very 
capital by farming. Consequently it is of little use to tell 
them what sized farm can be carried on to the best advan- 
tage, or the amount of capital it is necessary to have to 
commence farming with, or to carry on the farm after it is 
purchased ; for, as a general thing they have to buy, calcu- 
late, and manage, according to the circumstances in which 
they are placed. 

" Inseparably connected with this question, is the one of 
going in debt for land, or of paying part down, and the 
balance in a term of years, the money to be made out of 
the use of the farm. Although there is much in the ac- 
counts of individual experience published in agricultural 
papers, that goes to show that men have done well, and 
have been very successful, when in debt, yet it is the general 



custom of editors, and more or less of other writers, when 
treating these questions in a general way to strongly oppose 
— as is done in the paragraph above mentioned — any run- 
ning in debt for land. The idea appears to be — and in the 
abstract it is well enough — that a debt on a farm is a clog, 
a hindrance, a something that stands in the way of or pre- 
vents the practice of the most successful course of farming 
— an idea that seems to view the farm, and the capital ne- 
cessary to carry it on, as an end already attained, and only 
as a means to make a living, and accumulate more capital. 
Yet, with the great majority of American farmers, farming 
has been the principal or only means to get the farm, as 
well as the stock and capital to carry it on. Hence, 
on commencing, they are not called to decide on how 
large a farm, or how much capital they have to farm to the 
best advantage ; or whether they can do as well when in 
debt for their farms as they could if out of debt, with plenty 
of money to use ; but, on the contrary, the great practical 
question is how to get the farm. Comparatively few have 
the farm, or the money to. buy it furnished, to begin with ; 
and, though there are some that, having sold a farm, have 
money to buy another with, though, as a general thing, 
such men have sold with a view of improving their circum- 
stances, aiming or intending to buy a larger or better farm, 
which will cost more than the one sold, and in most instan- 
ces put them in debt ; still, as a general thing, it was the 
same with them as with others at the first commencement. 
" Hence, I repeat, the question is how to get the farm. 
And involved in this question are many others, such as, is 
it best to try to get a farm by buying and running in debt 
for the whole of it ? or is it best to wait until money enough 
is made in some other way to pay all down ? or is it best to 
pay part down, and run in debt for the rest? Or, to put 
the question in a different and more practical shape, if a 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 97 

man has only money enough to buy and pay down for twenty- 
five acres, had he better buy fifty acres, running in debt for 
twenty-five acres ; or, if he had only money enough to buy 
and stock fifty acres, had he better buy that amount, or buy 
one hundred acres, running in debt for fifty, and arranging 
and managing his stock so as to raise enough in a few years 
to fully stock his farm ? Or had he better take the advice 
often given in the papers, that is, only buy when he is able 
to pay for land enough to farm to the best advantage, and 
to have an amount of capital equal to the cost of the farm, 
as advised by B. ? 

" Now, it would be useless to give any farmer such ad- 
vice here in this section- of the State. Good farms sell here 
at from sixty to eighty dollars an acre, and the best size for 
a farm, to work to the best advantage, is probably from one 
hundred and fifty to three hundred acres. Such farms as well 
situated for, and as well adapted to farming to the best ad- 
vantage, as seems to be demanded by the general tenor 
of B.'s remarks, would cost from $10,000 to $20,000, to 
say nothing of adding as much more to stock and carry on 
the farm. So that in almost all cases to advise a man not 
to commence farming until he has such a farm, with such 
an amount of capital to work it with, would be equivalent 
to advising him to not buy at all. It will do little good to 
show him that farming can be made the most productive 
and profitable where the farms are large enough to use all 
the most approved tools, implements, and machines to the 
best advantage, and where there is all of the capital that 
can be made available or used profitably ; or to tell him 
that the greatest prosperity of the community and country 
requires, and the character and standing of the farming 
class may be promoted by this kind of farming. He will, 
perhaps, assent to all you say, but tell you that this is not 
the main question with him. That the main object being 
5 



98 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

to get a farm, and having money enough to pay from one- 
fourth to one-half down for such a farm as he wants or 
would be glad to get, with sufficient means to get the ne- 
cessary teams, tools, etc., to work it to good advantage, and 
to provide for supplying or raising all necessary stock, 
the question is, is it best to buy ? Can he pay for the farm, 
and is there any better course for him to take than to buy 
and go to work and pay for a farm ? 

" Then again : You may tell him that some of those that 
run in debt for farms fail, and lose all they have ; while 
others have a long, hard, up-hill business in paying for their 
farms. But he may answer that it need not necessarily be 
so ; that more or less fail in all kinds of business, situations, 
and circumstances ; but that, as a general rule, those that 
run in debt more or less for their farms succeed in paying for 
them, and often attain to very comfortable and independent 
circumstances, without suffering any very great hardships 
or privations. And did he live in this section he might 
say, that as a general thing all of the best and ablest farm- 
ers are men that, having t>egun with but little, if any, capi- 
tal, have made the principal part of their property while in 
debt; that there are very few farmers that are considered 
forehanded, or well off, but that have at some time been 
in debt for farms ; that some of the ablest men, worth from 
$20,000 to $25,000, have not only commenced farming with 
very little if any capital, but doing business on the general 
principle of buying and running in debt in most part for 
land, and then going to work and paying for it ; when one 
piece is paid for, soon buying another, and so keeping on, 
seldom out of debt long at a time, but generally making 
money, and satisfied and contented, they have eventually 
attained to circumstances that would be considered very 
satisfactory to most men. 

" True, their course or system of farming, though gener- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 99 

ally not bad, is not up to the highest standard of modern 
agriculture. But this is owing more to following old prac- 
tices and prejudices, and the kind of, or want of education, 
than the want of means. And I may also say that their 
general course of farming is being gradually but surely and 
largely advanced and improved by the younger class of 
farmers that are coming on ; some of them haying, in pro- 
portion to their chances and opportunities, been more suc- 
cessful than any of the older class. 

"A few words in regard to running into debt for land. A 
land debt, when entered into with proper precautions, and 
well guarded, — the farm being worth considerable more 
than the debt, and in a fertile condition, giving reasonable 
assurance of producing more than enough to pay the inter- 
est and a portion of the principal each year, and payments 
arranged so as to give ample time to meet them,— is not a 
thing to be so much dreaded. In fact, it often seems to 
be an advantage. It seems to furnish an object, an end to 
strive for, to be attained to. It gives the farmer a home, a 
something that he wants and means to keep, that he would 
be sorry and ashamed to lose, and altogether something 
that will induce hirn to work harder and manage better 
than he has ever done before, rather than fail in. This 
seems to be so well understood among farmers that the 
remark is often heard, ' that the best way to make money 
by farming is to buy and run in debt for land, and then go 
to work and pay for it.' 

"Perhaps I cannot better close this part of the subject 
and this article, than by giving a little of the experience of 
a farmer in the north part of this county, as related by him- 
self to a friend of the writer. He said, that having got his 
farm paid for, and a little money ahead, his family thought 
they must have something a little better than common, so 
they persuaded him to buy a $300 carriage. When they 



100 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

got this home they discovered that they had no harness to 
match, so he had to buy a costly harness. Then they said 
the old farm-horses were not fit to go before the new car- 
riage, so he had to pay $300 for a better pair. And then 
it was fine clothes and costly furniture, etc., etc., until, as 
he said, he could stand it no longer. And he continued : ' I 
have now drawn to market my last load of wheat, and have 
a thousand dollars in money. I can buy a neighbor's farm 
that is handy and convenient to mine, for $5,000. I think 
it is worth it, and I am going to buy it to-day. I find that, 
as things are going, about all we can earn will go to sup- 
port extravagance ; while I know if I go in debt for a de- 
sirable piece of property, like this farm, my family will go 
to work and help me pay for it. We will then have some- 
thing really valuable to show for our labor, and that some 
day will do my children some good.' " 

With the following brief rejoinder by "B." the 
discussion was closed : 

" The question of running in debt for a farm, under cer- 
tain circumstances, is argued very fairly by R, of Orleans 
county, N. Y., in the Country Gentleman of March 26 ; but 
we see very little in the paragraph of B.'s article to which 
he refers, to call out his remarks. The advice is given not 
to put all one's capital in land, retaining nothing to stock and 
carry it on ; and something must always be reserved for 
this purpose. No business can be carried on without capi- 
tal of some kind — because something can never result from 
nothing — valuable crops always require seed and culture. 

" In buying a farm the mistake generally made is in not 
providing sufficient means to carry it on. There is no diffi- 
culty in getting extended credit for a part of the purchase- 
money on a good farm, and we believe the most direct 
means of becoming in fact the owner of one, is to go in debt, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 101 

if necessary, to a sufficient amount to provide ample means 
for its stocking, cultivation, and improvement. To make 
money rapidly, by farming, requires ample capital ; those 
who cannot command it, lose, to say the least, one-half the 
profit they would otherwise secure. It may be true that 
those farmers who can see no better investment for their 
gains than the purchase of finery, need the pressure of debt 
to forward their advancement in property. In many cases, 
however, it would be more profitable than any other course, 
to spend their surplus capital in improvements on the old 
farm for several years, before adding a single acre to its ex- 
tent in surface. 

" We have seen and known of so many losses in farming, 
for the want of capital, that it makes us the more particu- 
lar to urge this matter on the attention of farmers. We 
hope F., with his wide extent of practical experience, may 
have seen something corroborative of this view of the mat- 
ter, and that he will present it and illustrate it with his usual 
force and ability, in your columns." 

The remarkable discussion thus quoted will not 
fail to give the reader many new and practical ideas 
on the subject of getting a farm. It ranges over 
many branches of the question, and contains a mass 
of robust good sense which an ambitious young man 
cannot too closely study. The suggestions made are 
not those of enthusiastic theorists, but the fruits of 
long and grave experience, such as, having been in 
most cases successful, are entitled to the highest re- 
spect. It is to be noted, moreover, that the question 
of how to get a farm being once started by one who 
saw the difficulty of obtaining it without capital, 
the subject was immediately recognized to be orje of 



102 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 

great and general importance, and that a large 
number of intelligent and experienced men hastened 
to engage in publicly discussing it. As in a multi- 
tude of counsellors there is sometimes wisdom, so in 
this friendly collision of opinion the seeker after 
knowledge on the subject will obtain new light, 
strong encouragement, and every reasonable incent- 
ive to induce a beginning. This country must con- 
tain thousands of men who, in the various ways 
thus indicated, are now living on homesteads which 
then* fathers or themselves have thus acquired. 

It was the reading of this discussion in the col- 
umns of the Country Gentleman that led me to pre- 
pare this volume. It struck me that all that ought 
to be said on the subject had not been discussed. 
Indeed, the columns of a weekly journal do not 
afford space for a consideration of the numerous 
aspects in which it might be presented. It was evi- 
dent, from the number of writers who volunteered 
to throw light on the question, that it was one in 
which a general interest must be felt. Hence my 
effort to increase the usefulness of the discussion by 
grouping together all that has been already said, 
with more that has been omitted. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 103 



CHAPTER V. 

Exhausted Farms always to be had — Thriving Tenants — Owners 
anxious to sell — Bartering Farms — A lucky Beginner — City 
Owners — Taking Advice — Where to Search — Saving a poor 
Farm — Struggling with limited Means — A Cry from a Working 
Man. 

The discussions quoted in the preceding chapters, 
though very clear and full, are far from exhausting 
the subject. There are multitudes of farms in all 
the Atlantic States whose owners have never con- 
templated working them. Some purchased as an 
investment, thinking farm land the safest property 
to hold. They rented them for a succession of years 
to tenants who skinned them with merciless assidu- 
ity, making them a heavier burthen to their owners 
the longer they held them. Year by year they thus 
became poorer and less productive. If rented on 
shares, as is generally the case, the tenants appro- 
priated most of the product, the owners getting 
little or nothing. The latter lived away off in some 
distant city; they rarely visited their country prop- 
erty ; they had neither taste nor opportunity for 
seeing whether it was handled wisely or honestly ; 
the tenants were thus left to exhaust the land as 
rapidly as they could, and were depended on to 
make report, at the year's end, of what was 



104 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

generally a bad season, of poor crops, poorer 
prices, and a still poorer return to the expectant 
owners. 

If the plundering tenant were discharged, he was 
generally succeeded by another whose genius for 
stealing was superior to that of his predecessor, as 
upon an exhausted farm he must skin more severely 
and steal more largely, to obtain a living. If the 
first thief took nearly all, the second was sure to 
take what was left. The owner being thus annually 
robbed, becomes tired of what he once considered 
the safest investment, and is anxious to sell. 

But a farm thus long the victim of spoliation, 
finds few cash buyers. It w T ill require time, labor, 
and money, to restore it. Depreciation is a rapid 
process, but restoration a slow one. Cash buyers 
prefer land in good condition, considering it cheaper 
to enter on a farm in prime order, at a high price, 
than on a poor one at a low figure. It is fortunate 
for the country that all who are looking for farms 
do not entertain the same opinion. If they did, the 
numerous tracts which have been thus skinned to 
death would be reoccupied by the forest, as none 
would be found courageous enough to undertake 
the slow and costly process of resuscitating them. 

The disheartened owner thus finds neither a buyer 
nor an acceptable tenant, nor is he so situated as to 
give his farm the least attention himself. He does 
not need the purchase-money — all he desires is to 
find some reliable man to relieve him of the care 
of an intolerable burden, by taking the farm on 
some terms. It must be occupied by somebody, as 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 105 

absolute desertion of house and grounds is as 
ruinous to a farm as idleness to the machinery of a 
cotton-mill. Should a young and competent man 
now offer himself as purchaser, fortified by good 
character and a knowledge of his calling, the 
chances are that he can secure the farm on such 
terms as to price and payment, as will make it the 
great and successful operation of his life. Such a 
man, having constantly looked forward to beginning 
for himself, will have saved a few hundred dollars ; 
and these will be found sufficient for a start. Others 
have begun in like circumstances, with no capital 
but their hands, and have succeeded. 

I have seen more than one farm thus owned, thus 
plundered and exhausted, thus an encumbrance on 
the owner's hands, and thus passing into the pos- 
session of men with little or no capital, who in a 
few years had paid, from its own products, every 
dollar of the purchase money. From the day they 
entered into possession they enjoyed the comforts of 
a home. It might at first be scanty, rough, and in- 
convenient, but still it was home. Every tree they 
planted became an investment for their own exclus- 
ive benefit. In every furrow they turned, some 
golden particles were discoverable at the bottom. 
Every spoonful of manure they bought or manufac- 
tured, was equivalent to a fund invested at more 
than compound interest. 

There are hundreds of poor farms now held by 
their owners because no buyers can be found. Men 
in search of land should seek them out, bargain for 
them at low prices and at long terms. of payment, 

5* 



106 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

and enter into possession. Let no want of capital 
operate as a discouragement, but go resolutely to 
work. Such beginners should avoid great farms. 
Far better to begin with thirty or fifty acres, pay 
for that, and then, if more land be indispensable to 
comfort, enlarge the boundary. 

There are two other classes of owners on whose 
hands farm property hangs either lightly or with 
oppressive weight. In all the large cities there is 
maintained an active trading business, in which 
houses, lots, land, merchandise, and patent-rights, 
are passed rapidly from hand to hand. Money is 
sometimes mentioned, but rarely paid — the whole 
transaction is one of barter. One who will take the 
pains to look over the registers kept by these city 
dealers, in which are entered the properties they 
have for sale or barter, will be astonished at the ex- 
tent and variety of the collection. There is almost 
every thing that anybody can desire — houses, lots, 
farms, mills, factories, water powers, wild land, some 
of which is within an hour's ride of a great cash 
market, and others two thousand miles away. Many 
of the farms have been taken in barter by city 
owners, whose sole business it is to get rid of them 
as quickly as they bought them. In some cases 
money is wanted, in others it is not, the barter being 
repeated by exchanging the farm for something con- 
sidered more salable. Thus the barter is kept mov- 
ing until some commodity turns up which can be 
converted into money. 

I saw at one of these agencies, in Philadelphia, a 
tolerably good farm sold in exchange for a half in- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 107 

terest in a patent pump, which was subsequently 
found to be a failure. On another occasion, a young 
man of six-and-twenty, dressed in a farmer's every- 
day suit, came in to look after a place of seventy 
acres which he had seen advertised. The advertise- 
ment did not state exactly where it lay, but the low 
price of $700 attracted his attention. The seller 
opened his thick book and read out a minute de- 
scription, on hearing which the inquirer immediately 
recognized the farm as one of which he had long had 
some knowledge. After a very short parley he 
bought it. This farm was improved with buildings 
which had cost $1,200, though now old and out of 
repair. The fencing could not have been placed 
there for less than $300, while there were other ap- 
pliances about the house sufficient to make a mod- 
erate family comfortable. . There was wood enough 
on it for fuel, and it was within two hours' ride of 
Philadelphia by railroad. 

But why should it have been sold so low % The 
former owner was a lazy, thriftless fellow, and, like 
the weeds on his land, had fairly gone to seed. 
Poor, of course, the longer he remained there the 
poorer he became, and thinking he could better 
himself in the West, where land was cheap, bar- 
tered off his farm for a half section, 320 acres, of 
Missouri land. This half section had cost the buyer 
$500 — at least he had taken it at that figure in a 
previous trade. He had never seen it, neither had 
he ever been to examine the farm for which he ex- 
changed it. His business was to buy and sell, not 
to examine property or to keep it. Thus $700 was 



108 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

to him a capital price, the more so if it should be 
paid in cash. 

The lucky young man who bought it had been 
for six years a careful saver of his earnings, and 
had $800 in hand. He had concluded to marry and 
get a farm. His intended wife, also brought up in 
the country, had saved $200. The union of these 
two little capitals thus gave him the very start in 
life he was seeking. But his excellent character 
was good for another thousand, whenever he chose 
to borrow. Buying such a property at such a price,' 
and occupying and working 'it himself, must have 
laid for him the foundation of a certain independ- 
ence. This incident forcibly illustrates the value of 
even small savings — how they sometimes enable a 
deserving man to seize upon the golden opportunity 
the moment it presents itself. 

There is another class of city owners, not profes- 
sional traders in property, who, having something 
which they were anxious to part with, have ex- 
changed it for a farm, thinking thus to better them- 
selves. But these soon discover that a farm so far- 
off that one can rarely see it, is a great plague, and 
speedily become anxious to sell, even at a loss. If 
a sale for money be found impossible, then one on 
credit is gladly made. The main object is not so 
much to get money as to shake off a perpetual care. 
They discover that an idle farm goes to ruin as rap- 
idly as an idle steamboat. 

Here are different classes of persons, all owners 
of farms, and all governed by the same feeling, that 
of anxiety to get rid of them. These reside in cities. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 109 

It is apparent, then, that one likely way to get a 
farm is, in the first place to seek out such properties 
as are known to belong to distant owners, and which 
are at the same time being skinned by worthless or 
dishonest tenants ; to obtain all the information pos- 
sible in reference to the property ; and then to find 
the owner and negotiate with him on the basis of a 
purchase, with ample time for payment. He will 
listen more respectfully to the man who proposes to 
buy than to one who merely proposes to rent. An 
offer to buy implies ability to pay — at least some 
time — and holds out a prospect of the owner being 
relieved of a great annoyance. Renting is synony- 
mous with continuance of an old and hateful griev- 
ance. Small means will be no hindrance against 
the application of a worthy man in these circum- 
stances. Character will be the preponderating in- 
gredient towards success, and, as in most others, will 
determine the question in his favor. 

I could recite three instances where this advice 
was given, and, being acted on, success attended 
each application. In two of them, the good conduct 
of the applicants was so conspicuous as to secure the 
confidence and friendship of the men from whom 
they had purchased, to such an extent, that, what- 
ever facilities were subsequently needed, were vol- 
untarily supplied. Character and conduct secured 
them friends, and were absolute equivalents to cap- 
ital. Kind words, moreover, were constantly spoken. 
Though cheap, yet they were valuable because in- 
spiriting. Some men are naturally given to them ; 
feeling that such utterance is like lighting another 



110 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

man's candle with your own, which loses none of its 
brilliancy by what the other gains. 

So, too, the shrewd man with few or no dollars in 
his pocket, should watch the advertising columns of 
every newspaper he can lay hands on. Wise men 
resort to them to let the world know what they have 
to sell, and other wise ones — the buyers — drink daily 
at the same fountains of intelligence. It is notori- 
ous that vast fortunes have been made by those who 
have freely advertised their wares. Is it not reas- 
onable to presume that those who read and pur- 
chased have had their share of profit ? There are 
more bargains to be found in the newspapers than 
at the auctions. 

He should also consult the thick registry books, 
kept by the numerous dealers in real estate, in all 
the large cities. These books contain descriptions 
of thousands of properties on sale. Many of the 
latter will be found to be desirable bargains. He 
must be hard indeed to please, if unable to find 
among them some one to exactly suit his wants. 
Having thus pleased himself, the chances are that 
he will find little difficulty in being able to please 
the owner. It ,may be urged that farmers, es- 
pecially young and inexperienced ones, are not 
business men enough to undertake a pilgrimage of 
this kind to strange places, among strange men. 
But bargains do not come to you ready made. The 
gold of California did not come to those who re- 
mained at home, but to those who went after it. 
They must break away from the old routine of their 
lives, remembering that our customs and habits are 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. Ill 

like ruts in the roads. The wheels of life settle into 
them, and we jog along through the mire, because 
it is too much trouble to get out of them. 

I could point to one farm thus taken from an 
owner so disheartened that at one time it was seri- 
ously contemplated to abandon it. The soil seemed 
hopelessly sterile, was chiefly yellow dirt with gravel, 
and had apparently as little capacity for retaining 
manure as a sieve for holding water. But deep 
ploughing and heavy manuring with fertilizers, man- 
ufactured on the premises by hogs and cattle, have 
brought it up to yielding thirty bushels of wheat per 
acre. Patience and perseverance, with very mod- 
erate capital to begin with, overcame every thing. 
As may be supposed, it was purchased for a small 
sum, but in ten years could have been sold for a 
large one. Instances of recuperation are too numer- 
ous to be recited. 

The design and object of this volume cannot be 
better promoted than by quoting from the Country 
Gentleman the following inquiry, made by one of 
the large class of persons who are constantly looking 
for a country home, with the editor's answer. His 
ripe experience of agricultural subjects gives the 
highest value to his remarks. The inquirer de- 
scribes himself as a young lawyer — 

" Making about $400 per year by my profession, and with 
almost no hope of increase, as the market is overstocked ; 
and I am sensible that I am neither a Kent, an Emmet, nor 
a Story. Having a wife and child to support, I am anxious 
to try some other business, that will better enable me to do 
so than at present. Would farming be better ? 



112 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

" I possess a thorough theoretical knowledge of agricul- 
ture, having at college made chemistry and botany my par 
ticular studies, and have, for years, been a constant reader 
of the best agricultural books and periodicals, the Cultiva- 
tor included. I have had considerable experience in 
gardening, and have been very successful. There my quali- 
fications end. I have never worked a whole day in the 
field, and am too feeble in body to do much labor of any 
kind. 

" About five minutes walk from my house and from the 

town of B , there is a piece of land containing sixteen 

acres of good clayey loam, sloping toward the south about 
one hundred feet down to the seashore, where marine weeds 
are abundant for manure. It is well fenced, but the build- 
ings are worth nothing. It has been badly cultivated, with- 
out any kind of manuring. It rents for $50 a year, and 
may be bought for $1,000, on easy terms, say $100 cash, 
and the rest in eight years. My whole available funds are 
about $200. Would it be prudent, then, to buy it? I can 
hire a good man for $80 a year and board. Produce brings 
fair prices, and is readily bought up : barley, at $1 per 
bushel; oats, 60 cents; potatoes, 60 cents; Swede turnips, 
about 40 cents; and hay $15 a ton, this year, and about 
$9, in other years. Indian corn we rarely grow, being lia- 
ble to early frosts. Will you give me your advice ? It 
would not be necessary to relinquish the law altogether ; I 
could probably make $200 by it, and still work the land." 

The case is stated with lawyer-like precision, 
whereupon the editor replies in the following lan- 
guage : 

" In giving advice, in such a case as this, it should be 
borne in mind that more depends on the man than on the 
nature of the business, provided the latter is such as to 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 113 

give an opportunity for the exercise of the energies. We 
have known of more than one instance where two men, 
with similar opportunities and means, have succeeded very 
differently at the same business — one failing, and the other 
accumulating wealth. Hence we cannot advise, in a general 
way, the purchase of a farm, by running almost wholly in 
debt for it. A few would easily work out ; but to most, 
the debt would be likely to prove a long-continued and op- 
pressive load. It must depend upon the management, tact, 
and economy in every se?ise of the word, possessed by the 
purchaser in question. 

" If we were to give one rule in business for beginners, 
which we should place at the head of all others, it would 
be — feel your way. Do not undertake any thing untried, 
on a large scale, no matter how promising the results may 
appear. The most uniformly successful men in business 
have nearly always pursued this course ; and we could, on 
the other hand, name many instances where large and bad 
failures have resulted from a different practice. 

" Our correspondent should not give up his practice of 
law immediately. He must depend on that mainly for two 
or three years at least, until he gets under way in farming. 
If he could rent the land for two years, with the privilege 
of purchasing, it would undoubtedly be best. But this, 
probably,' cannot be accomplished. He must therefore 
take into consideration the probable cost, in addition to the 
land, of aaimals to stock it (for even the smallest farm 
should have some animals), the expense of a horse or of a 
yoke of oxen, of the various necessary implements to work 
it to the best advantage, and of proper buildings. A man 
must be also hired to do most of the labor in the present 
instance. All these will be found to consume more than 
the proceeds of the land for the first year or two. If, after 
all these calculations, he can be sure of meeting his inter- 



114 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

est and other payments, allowing for disasters and contin- 
gencies, a purchase may be made. 

"Great judgment and skill should be exercised in select- 
ing first, those improvements which promise the greatest 
returns with the least outlay. On this branch of the sub- 
ject a large book might be written. We can only say 
here, make a list of proposed improvements — examine from 
all the -practical knowledge that can be collected, and to 
some extent from limited experiment on the spot, the prob- 
able cost on the one hand, and the probable advantages on 
the other, and then select first, those showing the largest 
percentage of profits. These may be some kinds of ma- 
nuring, or some cheap and efficient underdraining, or deep 
plowing of the tillage land, or heavy seeding of the grass 
land, or the cultivation of certain crops, or the introduc- 
tion of certain animals, remembering the rule in all cases, 

FEEL YOUR WAY. 

" Sixteen acres constitute but a small farm, but such a 
farm, skilfully managed, may after a while be made to pro- 
duce a considerable amount. Ordinary field crops alone 
will not be likely to produce even one-half of the $400 now 
made by law practice ; but these, with fruit raising, rearing 
fine animals, producing marketable garden crops, and per- 
haps the more salable fruit trees, may, with skilful hands, 
be made to increase the product to an almost indefinite 
extent. 

" We have heard wealthy farmers assert, that not over 
two per cent, on the cost of their farms and the capital to 
stock them, could be fairly relied on as an average for all 
seasons. But this estimate is made for ordinary superficial 
farming. We have found, by experience, that a better 
mode of practice, economically pursued, would, without 
any special trouble, double the products, and triple or 
quadruple the net profits. For instance, where a ton and 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 115 

a half of grass are commonly cut, four tons have been 
produced simply by heavy seeding and plastering ; where 
thirty bushels of corn have been the common crop, seventy 
bushels have resulted from well applied manure, selected 
seed, and good cultivation ; and where only two hundred 
bushels of carrots or rutabagas were ordinarily yielded, 
six to eight hundred have been obtained by performing 
every part of the operation promptly, in the best manner, 
and on a deep and rich soil. We have known a gain of 
more than one hundred dollars a year on a single farm from 
a selection of the most efficient tools, and proper labor- 
saving machines. We could also name some farmers, who, 
instead of reaping an average net profit of only two per 
cent., make at least twenty per cent.; and some of the 
best farmers of Western New York (and doubtless else- 
where) clear from $700 to $900 from every hundred acres — 
and in one case about $6000 have been made in a single sea- 
son from a five-hundred-acre farm. The owners and managers 
of these farms were active, intelligent, and energetic men, 
of long experience, always in the midst of every important 
operation, and we need scarcely add, constant readers of 
the best agricultural publications of the day." 

Such are the opinions of one who has long been 
regarded as an agricultural authority. They are 
cautiously expressed, but are not discouraging. 
They strengthen the position taken throughout these 
pages, that it is not the mere land which makes the 
cultivator independent, but the skill and industry 
with which he handles it. They may be said to lie 
at the foundation of all intelligent, well-directed 
labor. An animal will grow if generously fed; if 
not, he must remain nearly stationary. If not fed 
at all, he will assuredly die of starvation. It is pre- 



116 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

cisely so with agriculture. Crops must be fed, or 
they cannot be produced. In this case, the feeding 
consists of thorough tillage and manure. Both are 
costly items, but they are indispensable to success. 
The great question is how to command them in the 
largest abundance at the smallest cost. 

It is granted, on all hands, that the soil should be 
saturated with manure. Mere hard work will not 
procure it in the necessary quantity. Brains must 
be made to come in as the leading helper. Hence 
intelligence is necessary — the mere land will be 
found powerless to do all that too many expect' it to 
accomplish. Women, sick men, even absolute 
cripples, unable to perform an hour's work, have 
been highly successful farmers. But if deprived of 
hands to work, they had heads to superintend. 

Just before the crash of 1857 came with such 
desolating severity upon the country, a working 
man, a resident of the city of New York, who had 
somehow scraped together $4000, found himself 
precluded from increasing it by high rents, dear 
food, and the inevitable increase of expenses on 
every side. In this dilemma, he addressed himself to 
the Tribune, in these words : 

" I want to know what chance a man would stand in the 
country to take up farming — not out in Kansas — but say in 
Jersey, or the western part of this State, or out West near 
some improving location, so as to get away from high rents 
and dirt, and breathe a mouthful of fresh air — say a little 
place of fifty or sixty acres, with house and barn, one horse, 
three or four cows, a few sheep, some poultry, all paid for 
and clear of debt, so as to have $1,000 or $1,500 at interest, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 117 

just to have a little loose change coming in. Could a man 
live better, feel better, and be less a drudge, than to stay 
here in New York, and drudge, drudge, from day to day, 
and month to month !" 

What a revelation is here given of the workings 
of one mind among the large class for whose infor- 
mation this volume has been written ! To this 
string of questions the editor made the following 
pointed reply : 

" Farming is a vocation, requiring knowledge, experience, 
and skill, like any other. No man born and reared in the 
city can remove to a farm, at thirty or forty years of age, 
and become immediately an efficient, thrifty, successful 
farmer. He will have much to learn and something to un- 
learn ; and if he should get through his first year of farm- 
ing without using up $500 of his capital, he many consider 
that he has done well. Yet if he will keep his eyes open, 
take counsel from his neighbors, take two or three good 
agricultural papers, and read them carefully, we believe he 
can render himself a fair average farmer the second year, 
and something better than this thereafter. But, Is such a 
change as this desirable ? 

"We answer, Yes. If, with average capacities, and a 
capital of $4,000, you can, by steady industry, make noth- 
ing beyond a bare living in the city, we hold that you can 
do better in the country. If you buy your land for its fair 
valuation (and a great deal in this quarter is held twenty to 
fifty per cent, above that mark), and use it well, it must be 
steadily increasing in value. Your buildings also will ne- 
cessarily be enlarged and improved — this year a corn -crib 
will be added, next year an ice-house, and so on — and 
though your surplus funds will rather diminish than increase, 
and you will hardly see a dollar where you now see ten, 



118 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

you will be insensibly crawling toward a competence. Your 
children will every year become more and more helpful to 
you ; your young fruit-trees will come into bearing ; and 
you will have at least twice the produce to turn off six or 
seven years hence, that you can spare the first year. 

" As to drudgery, — a man who aspires to earn a good 
living and rear and educate a family by honest, straightfor- 
ward work, must be diligent as well as frugal, — there is no 
help for it. Still, a farmer with $4,000 capital well invested, 
or even half that sum, need not labor excessively. From 
April to November, he must work steadily and energetically 
at least ten hours per day ; but in winter he may moderate 
his exertions and give himself a week or more to visit rela- 
tives or friends, when he sees fit. Farmers do not work so 
many hours, on the average, as do the mechanics of this 
city. 

" As to location ; we think a man with $4,000 may buy 
a fair farm, in New Jersey, or one of our river counties, 
stock it fairly, and have $500 over for lee-way ; but he can, 
of course, buy a much larger farm and stock it much better 
from such a capital in a newer region, or even in western 
New York. Every section has its advantages and disad- 
vantages ; we should more strenuously insist on a healthy 
locality, than on fertile soil. With a cash capital of $4,000, 
you will be a rich man in almost any new settlement ; but 
frontier life has its inconveniences, even for men ; still more 
for women and children. Investigate and decide for your- 
self." 



AND WHEEE TO FIND ONE. 119 



CHAPTER VI. 

Wanting the Best — The Poorer Lands first Cultivated, then the 
Richer Ones — Value of Swamps — History of three of them — 
Cranberry Swamps of New Jersey — Power of Example — The 
Mississippi Swamp Interest — Wealth following Reclamation — 
Public Loans to aid Drainage — John Johnston, the Great Amer- 
ican Tile Drainer. 

It is a feature of American thought and habit to 
be rigid and exacting. We are too apt to reject the 
moderately valuable, and to insist on having only 
the best. The habit has infected even the children, 
beggars though some of them may be. A ragged 
little urchin came one morning to a gentleman's 
door, asking for old clothes. He brought him a 
vest and a pair of pants, which promised to make a 
comfortable fit. Young America took the garments 
in his hand, and examining them as closely as if he 
had been buying them, then, with a disconsolate 
look, exclaimed, " There ain't no watch-pocket !" 
Now, the truly great are humble ; just as those ears 
of corn, and those boughs of trees which are the 
most heavily laden, are seen to bend the lowest. 
The urchin's impudence represents the national pro- 
pensity — we must have the best. 

But what we may conceive to be the best for us, 
frequently turns out otherwise. It is thus in seek- 



120 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

ing to obtain a farm. He who is looking exclu- 
sively for upland and meadow, all ready for the 
plough or scythe, will be startled should he be told 
that he can do better by buying a swamp. The 
reader himself will probably be staggered by the 
proposition. It is a new one, truly, but will justify 
examination and analysis. 

More than fifty years ago, Mr. Ricardo communi- 
cated to the world his discovery of how men came 
to pay rent, and others to exact it. His work was 
accepted by political economists as a text-book ; 
his views were assented to without dispute; and 
for forty years no one ventured to doubt their 
correctness. His theory was a very simple one. 
He laid it down as law, that in the commencement 
of cultivation, when population is small and land 
abundant, the best soils, such as yield the largest 
returns, are the only ones cultivated ; that as 
population increases, land becomes less abundant, 
creating a necessity for cultivating a less pro- 
ductive quality, when, as population again in- 
creases, resort is had to still more inferior land, 
then to a third, and afterward to a fourth class of 
soils. 

These propositions, with the theories established 
on them, were for many years accepted throughout 
Europe, as well as in this country, as undeniable. 
But our distinguished political economist, Mr. Henry 
C. Carey, in his " Past, Present, and Future," pub- 
lished in 1848, has demonstrated their entire falsity. 
The foundation thus knocked away, the fabric of 
theory which Ricardo had reared upon it fell to the 



And where to find one. 121 

ground. Mr. Carey proved that the facts were ex- 
actly the reverse — that the land which man culti- 
vates in the beginning, is of the poorer qualities, and 
that that which he last brings under tillage is inva- 
riably the best. 

Take our own country as an illustration, because 
all can judge from facts that are occurring every- 
where around them. Here, the settler invariably 
begins by occupying the high and thin lands, which 
require little clearing and no drainage. Such yield 
him but moderate returns for his labor. But in 
time, as population and wealth increase, he travels 
down the hills, clearing up as he goes, until the 
bottom has been reached. There the hill terminates, 
and there the meadow or the swamp begins. It 
contains the rich deposits which for centuries have 
been washing from the hilltop and the hillside, the 
loss of which had thinned the poorer soil into which 
he first struck his spade. 

Every reader knows that no settler begins his 
clearing either in swamp or meadow, yet every one 
is aware that in such spots the richest land is to be 
found. He knows, moreover, that lowlands are the 
last to be reclaimed. To bring them into tillage re- 
quires money, skill, and time, — courage, also, may 
be mentioned as an indispensable auxiliary, — the 
courage to undertake a task which a succession of 
owners had carefully avoided. Ditching is familiar 
to most of us, and can be cheaply done ; but thor- 
ough underdraining was comparatively unknown 
among us until within a few years ; and it is only 
by resorting to it that the lowland can be effectu- 

6 



122 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

ally reclaimed. In a primitive condition of society, 
therefore, with money scarce and land abundant, the 
richer soils are neglected for the poorer. 

The early settlers, throughout New England, es- 
tablished themselves on the higher lands along the 
river courses, leaving to their more wealthy succes- 
sors the task of clearing up and draining the swamps. 
New York and New Jersey were settled on the 
same plan ; the higher grounds were first occupied, 
while vast meadows of extreme richness were neg- 
lected, because they required drainage. New Jer- 
sey contains multitudes of abandoned clearings, 
made by the first settlers on the poorer soils, but 
long since deserted for the richer ones. Maryland 
abounds with evidences of the poverty of the soils 
first occupied, and of the richness of the meadow- 
farms subsequently brought under tillage. In Penn- 
sylvania, the oldest habitations were always the 
most distant from the rivers. The rule prevails 
throughout the South and West. The higher and 
drier lands, in Mississippi, were peopled first ; the 
rich bottom lands of her great river were subse- 
quently reclaimed by ditches, and the vast embank- 
ment which now keeps out the annual overflow. 
Throughout South America the same extraordinary 
uniformity of practice has prevailed. In England, 
over the European continent, and wherever man 
has found a foothold, no departure from it can be dis- 
covered. The law laid down by Mr. Carey may thus 
be regarded as incontrovertible — the poorer lands of 
a country are settled first, the richer ones are settled 
last. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 123 

It remains for me to apply it to the subject in 
hand. I have intimated that a man desirous of ob- 
taining upland and meadow, ready for the plough 
and the scythe, would be incredulous if told that he 
could do better by purchasing a swamp. Unless he 
comprehended the foregoing law, or had seen it 
illustrated, or had had it clearly explained to him, 
it is natural that he should be confounded at the 
proposition. It would seem to him like asking for 
bread and receiving a stone. But his object is not 
only to get a farm, but to get the best one, and at 
the lowest price. 

Now, we know that the best land is always to be 
found in the swamp. There grows the heaviest 
timber, there vegetation shoots up with the rankest 
luxuriance, there the dark mould, which we call soil, 
is uniformly the deepest. It has been accumulating 
there for ages. Rains have washed down upon it 
the rich soil of the surrounding hills, for centuries 
before the white man had trodden them. The for- 
ests that covered them have showered upon it their 
annual wealth of leaves ; and winds have blown to 
it, from other woods, additional stores of foliage. 
Decay of the living and the dead has been going on 
without interruption. The original depression has 
become filled, many feet in depth, with a deposit so 
rich that the owner sometimes spreads it over his 
grounds, half suspecting it to be manure. It is, in 
fact, a mass of fertilizing matter of uncounted value. 
No intelligent man can doubt it. 

But the owner is ignorant or neglectful. He con- 
siders it only as a swamp. In his family it has had 



124 HOW TO GET A FARM. 

no other name. His boys hunt in it for skunks or 
rabbits, or for birds or honeycombs. It is known 
through the neighborhood as the swamp. It is good 
only for an occasional load of rails, perhaps a load 
of wood. Though assessed as waste land, yet it does 
not yield the annual taxes. Such it is considered 
hj all who know it ; and such, while in this condi- 
tion, it really is. In vain has the owner endeavored 
to dispose of it at a low price ; it is too well known, 
and too little valued by those who do not under- 
stand the capabilities of ground thus situated, to 
tempt them to buy. 

Yet this swamp may contain ten acres or a hun- 
dred, and be so located that a single ditch cut 
through the centre will render it comparatively dry. 
Cross drains on both sides of and emptying into the 
central ditch, composed of wood or tile, if sunk at 
intervals of thirty feet apart, will render it firm 
enough for the plough. By covering them they be- 
come underdrains. The main ditch itself may in 
some cases be covered also, leaving the ground, 
when cleared, without break or obstruction. It 
needs no manure, for nature has there concentrated 
an untold wealth of her choicest fertilizers. Who 
can doubt that fifty acres of a swamp like this, 
bought at a nominal price, and thus treated, will 
yield to the beginner a speedier and richer return 
than thrice the quantity of upland whose salable 
value consists in the single fact of its being upland 
instead of swamp ? 

From my own personal experience, I can speak 
of the value of these swamp lands which are so 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 125 

thickly scattered over our country, unimproved and 
unappreciated, as much to the shame of their own- 
ers as to the discredit of that shrewdness which 
ought to be manifested by the many who are seek- 
ing ways and means to get a farm. Five years ago, 
I was applied to by a young man who was anxious 
to begin his effort to secure a home of his own. He 
was a capital farm-hand, possessed great energy, and 
had saved $200 of his earnings. After learning his 
views, I suggested to him the propriety of purchas- 
ing a piece of swamp land, containing twenty-six 
acres, which was very nearly the counterpart of that 
above described. It produced nothing whatever — 
was too wet for a cow pasture, and was in fact a 
neighborhood nuisance. I had long noticed it, and 
had studied its capabilities. I had even pointed 
them out to the owner, but he was one of those 
farmers who have little faith in any one's knowledge 
but their own, and he refused to believe — his only 
desire was to sell. 

I took the young aspirant for a home all round 
the swamp, and into it as far as we could penetrate 
in a very wet season. It was grown up with alders, 
young dogwood bushes, and maples, with here and 
there a clump of tolerably large trees of other va- 
rieties. In some places where there was a slight 
rise in the land, it was firm and solid. I drew his 
attention to this circumstance, as proving that if the 
water could be as effectually drained away from the 
whole swamp as it was from these elevated spots, it 
must become equally dry. He recognized the rea- 
sonableness of the inference ; and, after a thorough 



126 

examination of the matter, assented to the feasibility 
of completely reclaiming the land. 

But the whole condition and aspect of the swamp 
was so forbidding, that, although his judgment was 
convinced, yet he hesitated about undertaking the 
task. He had never drained a swamp, nor seen a 
similar job done by others. He spoke of the nu- 
merous waste places in the neighborhood resembling 
this, and of the fact that not one owner had ever 
undertaken the business of reclaiming a single acre, 
though so much wealthier than himself. He was 
satisfied that the redeemed land would be of the 
highest value, but he doubted if his means would 
hold out. The difficulty was to get him to begin — 
he had a commendable degree of courage, but not 
quite enough. 

Finally, his hesitation was overcome by a third 
party offering to furnish the money with which to 
pay for the swamp, to wait any time for him to re- 
fund it, and, in case of his little capital and his own 
labor proving insufficient, to assist him with what- 
ever more might be needed. 

With this agreement to rely on the swamp was 
purchased at twenty dollars an acre.. Taking it as 
it stood, this was a high price; but looking at it 
with reference to what could be made of it, the 
price was low enough. It lay within twelve miles, 
by rail, of a city of many thousand inhabitants, 
and there was a station within gunshot, from which 
vast quantities of milk, vegetables, and other farm 
products, were daily carried to the city. The rail- 
road company was one of the few that assiduously 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 127 

cultivate the way traffic of the country through 
which they pass. The directors were as studious of 
the interest of the man whose whole freight was 
contained in a single milk-can, as of his who brought 
a load of wheat. Thus, let the farmer grow what- 
ever crop he considered best, he could rely upon 
the railroad to convey it punctually and cheaply to 
the adjacent market. It is the combination of such 
facilities that gives value to land. Without such 
combination in the present case, the swamp referred 
to would have been dear at any price. 

Hence, in the purchase and reclamation of a 
swamp, reference must not only be had to how 
cheaply it may be brought into tillage, but how near 
may be the market for its products, because the 
nearer it may be to market, the higher will be the 
prices to be obtained for them. The first charge 
on agricultural productions is that of freight — the 
cost of moving them to market from the spot where- 
on they were grown. 

The swamp was a parallelogram, with a water- 
course running professedly from end to end, but by 
courses surprisingly tortuous. There was a good 
natural fall, but the stream had become dull and 
lazy from a thousand obstructions, such as fallen 
trees, clumps of alders, old roots, and sandbars. At 
its lower end an ample outlet could be created, 
through which any volume of water from above 
would flow off rapidly whenever the outlet should 
be opened. These important facts had been noted 
before the purchase was made. When the fences 
had been shifted by the lines of the tract, an acre 



128 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

of upland w.as found to be included, on which build- 
ings could be placed. 

My protege began by opening an outlet at the 
lower end of the swamp, from which he cut a wide 
ditch through the whole, from one end to the other, 
felling trees, taking out roots, and grubbing up the 
dogwood and alders. Thirty days' labor of him- 
self and one hired man, accustomed to such work, 
completed the ditch. The effect was immediate and 
very decided. Instead of the old sluggish stream, 
a lively current now flowed rapidly down the new 
water-course, into which trickled a hundred little 
streams from both sides of the swamp. Heretofore 
they had stagnated for want of an outlet — now they 
put on a wholesome activity. Numerous ponds 
and puddles quickly disappeared, while sundry 
powerful springs became so well defined that their 
sources at the foot of the upland could be distinctly 
identified. 

While the changed condition of the land was 
thus enabling it to throw off a large portion of the 
surplus water which had made it worthless, the 
young owner went to work on the trees and under- 
brush. So great had been the change effected by 
the single ditch already made, that he felt greatly 
encouraged to persevere. As often happens, in such 
cases, the trees produced more cords of wood than 
either of us had anticipated. The brush was 
trimmed and bundled into faggots, which sold 
readily for kindling. The dogwood bushes were 
grubbed up bodily, so as to preserve the crook or 
curve at the root, and were then sold to a mannfac- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 129 

turer in the neighboring city, who converted them 
into canes and umbrella handles, paying snch a price 
as more than refunded the cost of grubbing. The 
wood was of course salable enough. 

Five months, from April to September, were oc- 
cupied in these various labors ; but though a hot 
sun had been playing on the now exposed surface of 
the swamp, causing an uninterrupted evaporation of 
its moisture, yet in some places it was still too wet 
to admit of hauling off all the wood, and that por- 
tion was left until a hard freeze the following winter. 
Meantime the grubbing went on wherever a root 
was found small enough to be extracted. Many 
larger ones were of course left,' the operation of 
taking them out being too expensive for a beginner. 
But vast piles of the smaller ones were collected 
and used in rilling up the old tortuous water-course, 
while the dirt from the new ditch was wheeled over 
planks to cover them, leaving the roots so far under 
ground as to be below the reach of ordinary plough- 
ing. This operation secured two important advan- 
tages — it cleared the new ditch of the embankments 
thrown up on its margin in digging it, and it brought 
up the old one to the surrounding level. By the 
first, all the surface water was allowed to flow off, 
as there could be no ponding or backing where no 
bank existed. By the last, a huge, crooked gully 
was converted into fast land. 

But the work was not yet done. Cross drains 
were to be dug from the main ditch, on both its 
sides, extending to the adjoining upland. So far 
there had been no proper time to do this, as all such 



130 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

drains would have been choked or destroyed by the 
falling trees, or the operation of grubbing. But in 
September this work was begun on one side of the 
main ditch, and was pushed rapidly to completion. 
Narrow drains or ditches were sunk wherever they 
were supposed to be necessary, in the bottom of which 
small bushes were deposited and then covered. Care 
was taken to lay the bushes all one way — lengthwise. 
Each one of these underdrains began immediately 
to perform its office of relieving the ground of a 
portion of its surplus water, as might be seen by 
examining the outlet in the main ditch. Some of 
them, such as had tapped a spring, discharged 
copious streams. 

All who have had any experience in underdraw- 
ing are aware how quickly it transforms wet land 
into dry land ; and those who have not, can form 
no idea of it until they witness the result for them- 
selves. It was so with my protege. He was aston- 
ished at the work of his own hands. The drained 
side of the swamp now dried up very rapidly. The 
land in some places settled away from the large 
stumps which yet remained, and was evidently be- 
coming hard and firm. These indications kept him 
in excellent spirits, to which the manure-like ap- 
pearance of the rich black soil that had everywhere 
been turned up as the drains were dug, made a 
further contribution. No one could walk over the 
ground on the two sides of the main ditch without 
instantly discovering the difference between the 
drained and the undrained. That winter he em- 
ployed in clearing up the swamp more thoroughly, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 131 

being now of opinion that he might be able to plough 
it in the spring. 

When spring came, he did succeed in ploughing 
nearly all the underdrained half, then limed it, 
planted corn, and raised the first crop that that 
swamp had ever produced. The corn was so large as 
to be an amazement to the neighborhood. It exceeded 
the yield of the upland on both sides of his line, 
and settled the question as to the profitableness of 
reclaiming swamp lands. 

The young owner was so much encouraged by his 
success that, after getting in his corn, he immediately 
proceeded to underdrain the remaining half. The fol- 
lowing spring it was dry enough to be all ploughed. 
He then limed it, and at the proper season sowed 
buckwheat, securing a crop quite as heavy as any 
of his neighbors. These first crops were regularly 
succeeded by others, and they were invariably good 
ones. In time, as the vegetable mould decayed, the 
soil became loose and of remarkably easy cultiva- 
tion, while in richness it far exceeded that of the 
best upland in the neighborhood. It needed no 
manure. The more it was turned up to the sun, the 
drier and more friable it became. Fruit trees were 
planted and flourished, and strawberries were grown 
in the rich new soil with astonishing success. It 
seemed to be the very home for cabbages, turnips, 
and celery ; and there is now as little prospect of its 
relapsing into swamp land as there was, ten years 
ago, of its graduating into arable land. It could be 
sold any day for $120 an acre. 

So much for its marketable value, but now for the 



132 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

cost of reclaiming it. This, all told, amounted to 
$21 an acre, but not including the young owner's 
time. I make no account of that, because he has 
his pay in the increased value of the land. The 
actual money-cost was more than $21 an acre, but 
the total stands at that figure by deducting sales of 
wood and faggots. 

There are tracts of swamp land which contain 
three times the quantity of timber that this did, 
which can be purchased quite as cheaply, and which, 
from the greater quantity of wood they might yield, 
could be reclaimed to better profit. There are 
others, wholly clear of wood and underbrush, which 
could be reclaimed for even less. It should be. the 
business of the shrewd and enterprising to seek out 
and appropriate them. 

The first cost of this swamp was $20 per acre, the 
reclaiming of it $21, making a total of $41, or 
$1066 for the whole. Its value rose in two years to 
$3120, or very nearly treble the first outlay. Here 
was a large capital suddenly created out of a small 
one, not by mere investment of the original sum, 
but by bringing to its aid the experience of one 
man and the courageous industry of another. It 
was the judicious combination of the three upon a 
specific object, that worked the change. Thu% the 
man who improves his own land, works with a long 
lever, and will find that, in reality, but little power 
is required. The lesson should be as instructive to 
those who read this, as was the reclaiming of the 
swamp referred to to the neighborhood wherein it 
lay. The owner's success was so decided, that it 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 133 

sent up the price of numerous waste places of sim- 
ilar character, and caused others to be as effectually 
drained. Exhortation had been lost upon the 
owners; but when the example was placed before 
them, imitation came of itself. 

The young man whose personal energy converted 
twenty-six acres of utterly waste land into a pro- 
ductive farm, created for himself, at a single stroke, 
a capital that set him up for life. He proved con- 
clusively that it is the best lands which come last 
into cultivation. The single acre of upland in his 
purchase now contains his house and barns, and 
from the remaining acres he produces ail that his 
family needs. In ten years from the day that he 
first struck his spade into the main ditch of an ap- 
parently worthless swamp, he will be out of debt, 
and worth his thousands. 

In the estimation of some, an undertaking of this 
character will smack of speculation. It is out of 
the old routine — it is a new way to get a farm — 
and being new, is therefore speculative, and being 
speculative, is not only foolish, but hazardous. But 
here the prevailing ingredients are good sense and 
resolute industry. The speculators hate work — the 
industrious hate speculation. Timid minds will re- 
ject the example just given, not only because con- 
stitutionally fearful of a new thing, but because of 
an equally constitutional incredulity. But the ex- 
perience of many in this country could be adduced 
in confirmation of the idea that one of the surest 
ways to get a farm cheaply, is to purchase and re- 
claim a swamp. It involves hard work as well as 



134: HOW TO GET A FARM, 

dirty work, wet feet and muddy clothes, but few 
undertakings will pay better. 

It is known that, several counties in New Jersey 
contain thousands of acres of cranberry lands, which 
annually produce abundant crops of fruit. In 
numerous locations the owners of the land receive 
no part of the crop. The whole region is but thinly 
settled, and there are but few clearings among the 
dense pine forests which cover a large portion of 
the ground. Most of these have been made by pine- 
hawkers and charcoal-burners, who support life 
under great privations, and who rear families in 
total ignorance of schools or churches. All round 
them lay immense cranberry grounds, without a 
panel of fencing on thousands of acres. From time 
immemorial these squalid families have gathered 
the fruit for their own benefit, and disposed of it at 
the nearest stores. They swarm among the swamps 
during the picking season, so that the owner gets 
little or none of the crop. If residing at a distance, 
as is generally the case, he has no chance whatever. 
Even when within a few miles of his own swamp, 
he receives no portion except by sufferance. The 
cranberry grounds of the region have been so long 
abandoned to these indiscriminate inroads, that the 
annual plunder of the crop has grown to be con- 
sidered a public right. In some places, the owner 
may receive a barrel or two as a gift, in others he 
is permitted to send in a few pickers for his own use. 
But it would be a dangerous experiment for him to 
undertake suddenly and forcibly to suppress these 
depredations — a general mutiny would be the result. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 135 

All these wild lands are consequently unsalable, 
and are worth from two to five dollars per acre. 
They have been in market at these prices for many 
years. Some of them are covered with small pines 
and scrub oak, the latter growing up wherever the 
former have been cut off for the use of iron furnaces 
or glass works. Large districts of them are within 
a few miles of a railroad, on which two hours' travel 
will convey you to Philadelphia, and three more to 
New York. But they lie on no public thoroughfare, 
and hence they have remained unnoticed and neg- 
lected. No good roads penetrate them, hence there 
are no travellers, and hence the distant public knows 
but little of their capabilities. 

Seven years ago an enterprising farmer of Bur- 
lington county purchased a hundred acres of this 
swamp land, for which he paid $5 per acre. All 
the adjoining land was in market at the same price, 
a third or a half to be paid down. Much of his 
purchase was grown up with cranberries. His de- 
sign was to give them some general attention that 
would cost but little money, and if found to pay, 
then to bestow more care upon them, and eventually 
to convert the whole tract into a carefully cultivated 
cranberry plantation. He conciliated, to some ex- 
tent, the jealousies of the neighboring sand-hillers 
by employing them to cut brush sufficient to con- 
struct a fence around the portion to be protected, 
so as to keep off the hogs and cattle which roamed 
the woods, rooting up or trampling down the plants. 

This slight protection of a brush fence, costing 
but little, produced the best results. The plants 



136 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

bore freely, and ripened their fruit well. He had 
purchased the land in April, and that fall he sold 
$600 worth of fruit, netting $440. The following 
year was less productive, in consequence of a heavy 
frost when the plants were in bloom. But the third 
year paid better than the first. In the mean time 
he had enlarged his plantation by extending his 
brush fence around other portions of the tract, and 
at this writing is clearing an average of $1100 an- 
nually from about thirty acres. 

In the sections of New Jersey referred to, there 
are numberless places whereon similar operations 
may be carried out. Some of them have been al- 
ready redeemed from their native wildness by a 
very moderate expenditure, and converted into the 
most lucrative investments. Once established, these 
cranberry swamps rarely fail. Now and then a frost 
may injure the crop, or the worm may wholly de- 
stroy it ; but on the average of five years, there is 
probably no investment that can be made to pay 
better. A cranberry swamp, well set with vines, 
and conveniently located, is a cheaper purchase at 
$50 per acre than a quarter section of government 
land as a gift. If so located as to be easily flooded, 
the crop may be considered sure. 

For a beginner it possesses rare advantages. Gen- 
erally it will take care of itself, requiring little labor 
or attention, except when the crop conies in. For 
at least ten months of the year he may employ most 
of his time in working out for others, or in cultivat- 
ing other land for the production of food for his 
family. The crop is among the most marketable of 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 137 

all the fruits. Its sale is distributed over the whole 
year, instead of being, like other berries, crowded 
into a few weeks. It is largely exported, and there 
has rarely been a glut. 

At a meeting of the New York Farmers' Club, 
in 1858, a letter from Mr. Edwin Salter, of Barne- 
gat, Ocean County, New Jersey, was read, from 
which the following extract is taken : 

" I notice, at a late meeting of the Farmers' Club, that 
the subject of transplanting cranberries was brought up. 
Could you put me in a way to find out what the New 
England cranberry-growers consider a good crop, natural 
growth and transplanted ? There are scores of acres in 
this vicinity that yield often over 100 bushels per acre from 
natural growth ; transplanting is here a new thing, and has 
not been carried on long enough to know how successful 
it will prove. The heaviest yielding cranberry-bog in this 
section is one in the woods some twenty miles from any 
habitation (except cabins), which is said to have yielded 
300 bushels to^the acre one season. In the vicinity of this 
bog are hundreds of acres of land which appears to be 
naturally such as at your meeting was described as the 
best adapted for transplanting. As this land is held at 
only a nominal price (from $1 to $3 per acre), it would 
doubtless pay to try transplanting there. At any rate it 
will be tried. It ought to pay better than New England 
land, for which, in addition to the higher price of land, 
heavy expenses sometimes have to be incurred to make it 
precisely what this is naturally. Our shore people here are 
nearly all seafaring men, but of late some few of them are 
turning their attention to the soil ; their experiments thus 
far prove that, though our land may not be as good as in 



13 S HOW TO GET A FARM, 

other sections, yet it will prove as profitable to till, espe- 
cially as we are but a day's journey from both New York 
and Philadelphia markets." 

If it be granted that it is a good thing to get a 
farm, it would seem to be a better one to find it al- 
ready planted with a permanent crop. Such is the 
condition of a natural cranberry swamp. But if 
the plants there flourish with profitable luxuriance, 
it does not follow that they can be cultivated with 
advantage on no other description of land. There 
are varieties which have been proved to be success- 
ful even on dry upland. But as such land is costly, 
its use for this culture does not properly belong to 
the subject in hand. Yet on the pine barrens of 
Long Island, these berries 'have been raised at the 
rate of seventy-five bushels per acre, after being set 
three years, the sod from the native swamp, full of 
plants, being transferred directly to the upland. In 
various parts of New England, the upland culture 
is reported to be profitable. But for light on this 
question the inquirer is referred to such books as 
treat fully of the cranberry culture. 

The reader of any of the numerous agricultural 
periodicals issued among us, cannot fail to have 
noticed repeated narratives of success in the recla- 
mation of swamp lands. There are many instances 
in which the work has been accomplished at a sur- 
prisingly low cost, while in others it has been the 
reverse. It should be the study of the beginner to so 
select the spot on which he is to operate, as to take 
that only which can be reclaimed at the minimum 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 139 

expense. Our country abounds with desirable fields 
for such operations. Every reader can call to mind 
some worthless swamp or cripple, admirably situ- 
ated as to neighborhood and market, large enough 
to make a respectable farm, and obtainable at a low 
price on such terms of payment as a small capitalist 
could comply with. In some locations the neigh- 
bors would be disposed to aid the man who had en- 
terprise enough to undertake the abatement of a 
nuisance which was not only offensive to the eye, 
but dangerous to public health. 

The surpassing richness of such lands, when re- 
deemed from the dominion of the water, has long 
been proverbial. They need no manure, yet they 
produce double crops. Strangely enough, though 
the best soil on the continent, yet it comes last into 
cultivation. Hence I am free to urge this process 
as one of the best, the quickest, and the surest, by 
which to get a farm. Like the cranberry swamp, 
it possesses peculiar advantages for a small beginner, 
as it yields immediate returns, and as there are long 
intervals between the different stages of work, during 
which he can employ himself at other labor. When 
his drains have once been laid, the land will be dry- 
ing while he sleeps; and if, when seeking for a 
farm, he had been recommended to plunge into a 
swamp, he will find, in the end, that it was not ask- 
ing for bread and receiving only a stone. 

Such an example operates powerfully on others. 
Mr. Beecher says, that " if men are to become in- 
telligent, we must give them specimens of intelli- 
gence. Let a man go into a village where the 



140 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

houses are all going to decay, where the fences are 
all tumbling down, and where no pains are taken 
with trees and flowers, and build a neat house, in- 
closing his grounds with a neat fence, and tastefully 
decorating his yard with comely trees and beautiful 
flowers, and his example will be a blessing to the 
place. In three years there will be twenty neat 
houses, with good fences, and yards blooming with 
shrubbery and flowers, as the result of his judicious 
outlay of means. The taste of the whole village 
will be. educated and improved by the influence he 
will exert through the instrumentality of whatever 
advantages he may possess over its inhabitants." 

But if moderate capitals may be advantageously 
invested in the reclaiming of either swamp or cran- 
berry lands, it does not follow that large ones, so 
used, will fail to produce equally satisfactory returns. 
One instance may be cited where a large sum was 
devoted to reclaiming a cranberry swamp in Mas- 
sachusetts. The leading particulars were given in 
the Boston Cultivator, from which the following ac- 
count is taken. The grounds were visited by the 
editor in November, 1863. Their owner is Dr. E. D. 
Miller, whose residence is Dorchester, some twenty- 
five miles from Boston. The swamp is described as 
having been almost worthless. 

" Something like ten years since, this swamp was covered 
over with a growth of alders, dogwood, white maples, and 
other swamp-shrubs, which covered the ground ; they were 
cleared off, and a ditch cut through the swamp f&r the 
brook, which before ran through a very crooked channel. 
Ditches were then opened from the uplands on each side, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 141 

which are gravelly and sandy, leading into the main ditch. 
A dam was constructed across the swamp, which serves the 
purpose of flowing it, and also that of a road to pass across 
it. In the winter, the swamp was usually flowed, and 
gravel, this being better than sand, was drawn on the ice 
and spread. Afterwards it was planted to cranberry cut- 
tings, in drills about eighteen inches apart, this, from ex- 
perience, proving to be a suitable distance apart. How 
many coverings of gravel have been put on was not learned; 
but several, judging from the excavations when removed. 

" About twelve or fourteen acres of this swamp have 
been planted ; and so favorably is it situated, that it can be 
covered with water in little more than an hour's time. The 
brook is of such capacity, with the aid of a reservoir above 
the cultivated ground, that the plants can be protected 
from frosts at any season when there is any danger. 

"The crop of the past season was about 1100 barrels 
of very nice fruit, and of remarkable size. I brought away 
a couple of berries, that measured nearly three inches in 
circumference. The crop was all picked by hand, at a cost 
of nearly $2000. At one time, said Dr. Miller's farmer, 
200 persons might have been seen in that swamp picking 
cranberries. It was a lively scene. After they were 
gathered, they were taken to the house, where they were 
sorted, the soft berries, after winnowing 'them, were culled 
out by women and girls, preparatory to barrelling. 

" When Dr. Miller first contemplated the cranberry cul- 
ture of this swamp, he visited Mr. Joseph Breck, the well- 
known seedsman of' North Market-street, Boston, and 
asked him how to go to work. Mr. Breck said he could 
not tell him : then he asked for the best work on cranberry 
culture. Mr. B. told him he did not know of any he 
could recommend ; then, said Dr. Miller, ' Can you tell me 
of a man I can employ that knows something about it V 



142 

and Mr. Brcek said he could not. 'Well,' replied Dr. M., 
4 then I will try and see what I can do.' The result and 
the -mode of doing- it is briefly stated as above, as learned 
from Dr. Miller and Mr. Desmond, his farmer. 

" Dr. M. has informed the writer, since visiting the cran- 
berry swamp, that the fruit has generally been sold so far 
as it is marketed, at the current price, though some of it 
was sold at $15 a barrel. Call the average price $10 a 
barrel, and 1100 barrels will bring the snug little sum of 
$11,000. This beats tobacco-raising out of sight, as the 
saying is. 

"One of the peculiar advantages possessed by Dr. 
Miller over most of the owners of swamp lands, is the 
facility with which he can flow it at all seasons of the 
year, thus guarding the growing crop from both late spring 
frosts and early autumn frosts ; and, besides, gives him the 
power to destroy insects that sometimes infest the vines. 
Swamp lands that can be as quickly flowed and as quickly 
drained as Dr. Miller's cannot be used more profitably than 
by growing cranberries, as it would seem by the Doctor's 
experience. It is also easily gravelled in the winter by 
flowing it." 

The foregoing account was considered so remark- 
able, that I applied to Dr. Miller for some additional 
items of information. From these, in connection 
with the narrative quoted, the reader will be able to 
form a j nst conception of the magnitude of the en- 
terprise, of the amount of capital invested, as well 
as of the character of the result. 

Dr. Miller has about twenty-five acres, divided 
into live meadows, varying in size from 3 to 12 or 
1-t acres, all on the same stream of water. The 
whole can be overflowed at will in about two hours. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 143 

About 18 to 20 acres are drained by side ditches 
discharging into a main ditch, all being open — no 
underdrains. The top soil of the meadow was re- 
moved to the depth of eight to eighteen inches, and 
about six inches of coarse gravel was put in its 
place. The cranberry plants which were growing 
wild upon the spot, were necessarily removed by 
tli is operation, but they were replanted on the gravel. 
The principal meadow of 12 to 14 acres was pur- 
chased at $12 per acre, and the cost of reclaiming 
and planting was about $500 per acre. 

The work was begun in 1852, and the next year 
a small quantity of fruit was gathered. The suc- 
ceeding crops, for eight years, varied from 200 down 
to 7 barrels. The crop of 1862 was the smallest ol 
all, and was lost by the neglect of a workman ; that 
of 1863 was the highest, and amounted to 1030 
barrels. Dr. Miller says, " I have no doubt that 
when my meadows are brought to a proper con- 
dition, they will yield, some seasons, from 2000 to 
2500 barrels." 

He says, moreover, that his example is followed 
by others to a limited extent, owing to the want of 
suitable meadows as to flowing, gravel, &c. He 
thinks he could now do the same amount of work 
(with labor at the same price) for $150 less per acre. 
It was to get rid of the multitude of roots in the 
ground that he removed so great a depth of soil. 
All this was taken away by wheelbarrows, the 
ground being too soft to sustain the tread of cattle. 
It was finally burned, and the ashes used on other 
land. The larger meadow had run to waste so long, 



1M 

that for some time the owner could not decide to 
whom it belonged. 

It will doubtless occur to the intelligent reader 
that Dr. Miller committed an oversight in destroy- 
ing by fire the immense amount of sods, grass-roots, 
muck, and peat, which he thus removed with the 
alder and other roots. From so large a surface, and 
going to so great a depth, the accumulation must 
have been enormous. Though when dry it would 
readily bum, yet it was in reality a highly concen- 
trated manure. There was a certain value in every 
load, as would have been manifested had it been 
applied to other land. But the Doctor admits that 
he kept a loose account of the profits he gained by 
removing this mass of vegetable matter, and says, 
u I was more anxious to get rid of it than to make 
anything out of it." As he managed the affair, he 
thinks he realized about 1200 bushels of ashes. But 
it may be safely assumed that the real value of the 
manure thus passed through the destructive ordeal 
of fire, was fully equal to a third, if not the half, 
of the whole cost of removing and replacing it. 

This estimate is warranted by my own experience. 
Some four years since I began the operation of re- 
claiming a jungle of three acres, which, since the 
foundation of the world, had produced no crop but 
alders, briars, hassocks, ferns, and bumble-bees. It 
was too soft for cattle to graze through it, and in 
many places would almost mire a goose. The alders 
had been cut off thirty years previous, but the roots 
had been left in the ground. For all agricultural 
purposes this meadow was absolutely worthless. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 145 

I began by opening a ditch through its whole 
length, some 800 feet, then dug narrow cross-ditches 
at right angles, 30 feet asunder, in which were de- 
posited trunks formed by nailing two boards together, 
and discharging into the main ditch. They were 
then covered, and became underdrains. This was 
all done in the autumn. In July following, the 
ground was dry and hard enough for a team of four 
mules to. plow up the tough and almost impenetrable 
sod that covered it. In October this sod was taken 
off and collected in a huge pile, so high and so long 
as to resemble a railroad embankment. Two hun- 
dred bushels of lime were mixed in as the pile was 
made. That winter the denuded meadow was filled 
in with dirt from an adjoining highland, in many 
places to the depth of a foot, the wheelbarrow and 
horse-shovel being used. The next season it was 
all ploughed and planted with corn, cabbages, and 
pumpkins. 

But the sod taken from the surface was worth 
more than the whole improvement cost. It amounted 
to several thousand loads. It burned readily when 
only half dried, and could have been as quickly 
converted into ashes as that which fell to the lot of 
Dr. Miller. But in place of being burned, a section 
of the heap went four times a year to the barn-yard, 
where it speedily graduated into the richest kind of 
manure. 

It was interesting to notice how every plant grew 
and flourished to which it had been freely applied. 
Corn, grapes, strawberries, celery, potatoes, and 
garden vegetables especially, were stimulated into 

7 



146 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

a most luxuriant growth. It could hardly be other- 
wise, as it was pure vegetable fibre in a state of 
decay. Some professional florists who visited my 
premises, and examined, this great muck-heap, ex- 
pressed their admiration of its richness. It was the 
very material to obtain which they were compelled 
to send many miles, and without which it would be 
scarcely possible for them to prosecute their busi- 
ness. I could have readily sold it for more money 
than the whole improvement of the three acres of 
meadow cost me. This experience is cited as one 
of the forms in which the reclaiming of a swamp 
will return immediate compensation. 

The abundance of swamp lands in this country 
having been referred to, it may be of some interest 
to give such figures in relation to the subject as may 
be relied on. There are no statistics showing how 
many acres the whole Union contains ; but some 
idea may be gathered from the legislation which 
has been had in Congress when coming to dispose 
of them. The first statute which dealt with this 
interest was the law of 1849, in relation to Louisi- 
ana, a large extent of whose territory was annually 
overflowed. Along the Mississippi the alluvial 
margin is from one to two miles wide ; and to pre- 
vent the inundation from that river, an artificial 
embankment or levee system had been adopted, 
extending, on the east side of the river, from forty 
miles below New Orleans to a distance up the 
river of a hundred and eighty miles, and on the 
west side generally to the boundary of Arkansas. 

To aid Louisiana in constructing the necessary 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 147 

levees and drains to reclaim these swamps and over- 
flowed lands, Congress, by act of March 3, 1849, 
granted to that State " the whole of those swamps 
and overflowed lands which may be, or are found 
unfit for cultivation." The Government, in the 
spirit of enlarged public policy, conceded this class 
of inundated lands to aid in the construction of per- 
manent levees, with a view to secure private prop- 
erty, and also as a sanitary measure. To this suc- 
ceeded the law of 1850, extending a similar grant 
to Arkansas ; but the last section of the act en- 
larged the grant, so as to embrace " each of the 
other States of the Union in which such swamp and 
overflowed lands may be situated." When this 
measure had its origin, and before it became general, 
the grant was estimated as embracing 5,000,000 
acres. But in September, 1863, it was ascertained 
that the enormous quantity of 57,923,737 acres had 
been selected. 

How such extraordinary flexibility was imparted 
to a law having a definite object, is shown by the 
subjoined explanation from the Washington Union: 

" It is currently reported that extensive frauds have been 
attempted in regard to the selection of swamp lands under 
the act of September 28, 1850. That act granted to the 
States the swamp and overflowed lands, unfit thereby for 
cultivation, which were at that time unsold. Some of the 
States selected swamp lands in accordance with the 
field notes of the Surveyor-General ; other States appointed 
agents to select these lands, the agents furnishing lists to 
the General Land-office, which lists, having been examined 
by the Surveyor-General, were reported for approval or 



148 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 

disapproval. In some of the States these lands were 
granted to the counties in which they were found, by the 
State Legislatures. The counties, in some instances, en- 
tered into contracts with the agents for the purpose of se- 
lecting those lands for them. It is said that, in some in- 
stances, these agents went into the fields and selected all 
the good vacant land which they could find, irrespective of 
its character, whether swamp or otherwise. These agents, 
by contract, were allowed, say ten or fifteen cents an acre 
in some instances, and in others one-fourth and one-third 
of the lands found. Under these tempting inducements, 
some swamp lands have been found on the tops of high 
hills and mountains. If these lists of selections by these 
agents should have been sanctioned by the Department, 
this class of speculators would have made from $250 to 
$50,000 a day. On the 3d of March, 1857, an act was 
passed in relation to these selections, which the Depart- 
ment of the Interior holds does not relate to selections of 
lands made after the date of the act itself. It seemed to 
be the design of this act of 3d of March, 1857, to confirm 
to the several States such lands as may have been selected 
under the act of 28th September, 1850, which had hereto- 
fore been reported to the Commissioner of the General 
Land-office, so far as then vacant and unappropriated, and 
not interfered with by actual settlement. Selections which 
have been made since the date of this act, it will be per- 
ceived, have not been confirmed thereby. Some of these 
parties, who have expected to be benefited by this act of 
1850, will find themselves sadly disappointed." 

In the overflowed region along the Mississippi 
river, for the reclamation of which the law was 
originally intended, and where it went earliest into 
operation, the effect was speedy and very remark- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 149 

able. Daring the three years ending with 1857, 
there was an increase of over $50,000,000 in the 
assessed value of the lands in Mississippi, and of 
over $25,000,000 in the value of the taxable slaves. 

A very large portion of this enormous increase 
of value occurred in the regions subject to overflow 
from the river, but which, under the operation of 
the law jnst referred to, had been drained and 
brought under tillage. But this system of drainage 
had scarcely been begun. All thus far accomplished 
had been hastily, and therefore imperfectly done. 
Yet the amazing fertility of the half-reclaimed 
bottoms is shown in the rapid increase of values. 
Their superior productiveness attracted capital and 
population from all the slave States. Within the 
three years mentioned, the slave population of Mis- 
sissippi increased from 326,861 in 1854, to 368,861 
in 1857. The progress developed in Arkansas and 
Texas was even more remarkable. This increase 
would have gone on enlarging as the drainage ex- 
tended and became more complete. But rebellion 
not only interrupted its progress, but made the 
whole region a hissing and an astonishment to the 
world. As an organized institution, slavery became 
utterly demoralized, and in many places ceased to 
exist. The slaves became fugitives or soldiers. 
Thousands perished of disease or starvation. Plan- 
tations were abandoned, their buildings and ma- 
chinery destroyed, leaving what is probably the 
finest region on the continent to be repeopled and 
resuscitated by a new race of owners. 

This appropriation of public land may be re- 



150 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

garded as the only instance in which our Govern- 
ment has extended aid to promote the drainage of 
any description of lands. While with us the neglect 
of this important interest has been the rule, in Eng- 
land the practice has been directly the reverse. For 
a long series of years, the efforts of English land- 
lords have been directed to the reclamation of waste 
lands, moors, heaths, and lowlands. In 1797, a 
committee of the House of Commons estimated the 
area of such lands as had been brought under in- 
closure from 1700 to that date, at about 4,000,000 
acres. The subsequent increase was relatively much 
greater, as there are statistics to show that from 
1800 to 1820, as many as 3,000,000 acres more were 
brought under tillage. It is held that this rapid 
addition was caused by the stimulant of high prices 
for all agricultural products growing out of the 
wars of that period. 

Since 1820, it is said that the reclamation of waste 
lands in England has not been pushed so vigorously, 
but that the effort has been to increase the acreable 
product of land, rather than to enlarge the area. 
Hence the enthusiasm touching artificial fertilizers 
and underdraining, both looking to a larger expend- 
iture of capital and labor on an acre. Government 
has shared in this enthusiasm by loaning to English 
farmers some $60,000,000 to enable them to under- 
drain their lands. It is among the remarkable facts 
of this munificent loan, that the lender has sustained 
no loss from the borrowers, and that no land has 
been underdrained without being signally benefited. 
In numberless instances its productive capacity has 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 151 

been doubled. Indeed, some authorities have held, 
that but for the increased supply of food thus pro- 
duced in England, as the result of a vast system of 
underdraining, the people of that country would be 
almost as helplessly dependent on other nations for 
food, as their manufacturing industry has been de- 
pendent upon us for cotton. 

Thus, if underdraining has been recognized in 
England as a subject deserving of national encour- 
agement, the fact is a significant endorsement of the 
prominent position which it has been made to oc- 
cupy in this volume. But though no similar aid 
has been given to American farmers, yet there are 
thousands of them who, aware of its importance, 
have made drainage a fundamental element of their 
whole system of farming. From among these a 
single instance may be cited, as showing not only 
how thoroughly the art has been transplanted to 
this country, but how fully its results here corrob- 
orate those which have been realized by English 
farmers. The facts are taken from the New York 
Tribune, for October 29, 1859 : 

" Mr. John Johnston, near Geneva, N. Y., at one time 
esteemed a fanatic by his neighbors, has come, of late 
years, to be generally known as ' the father of tile-drainage 
in America.' After thirty years of precept, and twenty-two 
of example, he has the satisfaction of seeing his favorite 
theory fully accepted, and to some extent practically ap- 
plied throughout the country. Not without labor, however, 
nor without much skepticism, ridicule, and controversy, has 
this end been attained ; and if, now that his head is 
whitened, and his course all but run, he finds himself re- 



152 

spected and appealed to by persons in every State of the 
Union, he does not forget that it has been through much 
tribulation that he has worked out this exceeding great 
weight of glory. Mr. Johnston is a Scotchman, who came 
to this country thirty-nine years ago, and purchased the 
farm he now occupies on the easterly shore of Seneca Lake, 
a short distance from Geneva. With the pertinacity of his 
nation, he stayed where he first settled, through ill fortune 
and prosperity, wisely concluding that by always bettering 
his farm he would better himself, and make more money in 
the long run than he could by shifting uneasily from place 
to place in search of sudden wealth. He was poor enough 
at the commencement; but what did that matter to a fru- 
gal, industrious man, willing to live within his means, and 
work hard to increase them ? And so with unflagging zeal 
he has gone on from that day to this. 

"His first purchase was 112 acres of land, well situated, 
but said to be the poorest in the county. He knew better 
than that, however, for although the previous tenant had all 
but starved upon it, and the neighbors told him such would 
be his own fate, he had seen poorer land forced to yield 
large crops in the old country, and so he concluded to try 
the chances for life or death. The soil was a heavy gravelly 
clay, with a tenacious clay subsoil, a perfectly tight reser- 
voir for water, cold, hard-baked, and cropped down to about 
the last gasp. The magician commenced his work. He 
found in the barn-yard a great pile- of manure, the accumu- 
lations of years, well rotted, black as ink, and l as mellow 
as an ash-heap.' This he put on as much land as possible, 
at the rate of seventy-five loads to the acre, ploughed it in 
deej)ly, sowed his grain, cleaned out the weeds as well as 
he could, and the land on which he was to starve gave him 
about twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre. The result 
was, as usual, attributed to luck, and any thing but the real 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 153 

cause. To turn over such deep furrows was sheer folly, and 
such heavy dressings of manure would not fail to destroy the 
seed. But it didn't ; and let our farmers remember that it 
never will ; and if they wish to get rich, let them cut out 
this article, read it often, and follow the example of our 
fanatical Scotch friend. 

" This system of deep ploughing and heavy manuring 
wrought its results in due time. Paying off his debt, put- 
ting up buildings, and purchasing stock each year to fatten 
and sell, Mr. Johnston, after seventeen years of hard work, 
at last found himself ready to incur a new debt, and to 
commence laying tile drains. Of the benefits to be derived 
from drainage he had long been aware ; for he recollected 
that when he was only ten years of age, his grandfather, 
a thrifty farmer in the Lothians, seeing the good effects of 
some stone drains laid down upon his place, had said, 
* Varily, I believe the whole airth should be draiued.' This 
quaint saying, which needs but little qualification, made a 
lasting impression on the mind of the boy, that was to be 
tested by the man, to the permanent benefit of this country. 

" Without sufficient means himself, he applied for a loan 
to the bank in Geneva, and the President, knowing his in- 
tegrity and industry, granted his request. In 1835, tiles 
were not made in this country, so Mr. Johnston imported 
some as samples, and a quantity of the 'horse-shoe' pattern 
were made in 1838, at Waterloo. There was no machine 
for producing them, so they were made by hand, and 
molded over a stick. This slow and laborious process 
brought their cost to $24 per thousand, but even at this 
enormous price Mr. Johnston determined to use them. 
His ditches were opened and his tile laid, and then what 
sport for the neighbors ! They poked fun at the deluded 
man ; they came and counseled with him, all the while 
watching his bright eye and intelligent face for signs of 

7* 



154 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

lunacy ; they went by wagging their heads, and saying 
'Aha!' and one and all said he was a most consummate ass 
to put crockery under ground and bury his money so fruit- 
lessly. Poor Mr. Johnston ! he says he really felt ashamed 
of himself for trying the new plan, and when people riding 
past the house would shout at him, and make contemptuous 
signs, he was sore-hearted, and almost ready to conceal his 
crime. But what was the result ? Why this : that 
land which previously was sodden with water and utterly 
unfruitful, in one season was covered with luxuriant crops, 
aad the -jeering skeptics were utterly confounded ; that in 
two crops all his outlay for tiles and labor was repaid, and 
he could start afresh and drain more land ; that the profit 
was so manifest as to induce him to extend his operations 
each succeeding year, and so go on until 1856, when his 
labor was finished, after having laid 210,000 tiles, or more 
than fifty miles in length ! And the fame of this individual 
success going forth, one and another duplicated his experi- 
ment, and were rewarded according to their deserts. 

" It was not long after the manufacture of the first lot of 
tiles that a machine was contrived which would make them 
quite as well and faster ; and by its aid they were afforded 
at quite as low a price as after an English machine was im- 
ported. The horse-shoe tile has been used by Mr. Johnston 
almost exclusively, for the reason that they were the only 
kind to be procured at first, and on his hard subsoil, finding 
them to do as well as he could wish, he has not cared to 
make new experiments. He has drains that have been in 
function for more than twenty years without needing re- 
pair, and are apparently as efficient now as they were when 
first laid. In soft land, pipe or sole tiles would be prefer- 
able, or if horse-shoe were used, they should be placed on 
strips of rough board, to prevent them sinking into the 
trench bottom, or being thrown out of the regular fall by 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 155 

being undermined by the running water. He has not used 
the plough for opening his trenches, for the reason that all 
his work has been let out by contract, and the men have 
opened them by the spade ; charging from twelve and a- 
half to fifteen cents per rod for opening and making the 
bottom ready for the tile. The laying and filling was done 
by the owner. 

u His ditches are dug only two and a-half feet deep, and 
thirteen inches wide at the top, sloping inward to the bot- 
tom, where they are just wide enough to take the tile. 
One main drain, in which are placed two four-inch tiles set 
eight inches apart, with an arch-piece of tile having a nine- 
inch span set on top of them, was dug three and a-half and 
four feet deep, and this serves as a conduit for the water 
from a large system of laterals. Drains should never be 
left open in winter, for the dirt dislodged by frequent frosts 
so fills the bottom that it will cost five or six cents per rod 
to clear them ; and, moreover, the banks often become so 
crumbled away that the ditch cannot be straddled by a 
team of horses, and thus most of the filling must be done 
by hand. Mr. Johnston, in draining a field, commences at 
the foot of each ditch, and works up to the head. He 
opens his mains first, and then the lateral or small drains, 
but he lays the tiles in the laterals, and fills them com- 
pletely, before laying the pipe in the mains. The object of 
this is to prevent the accumulation of sediment in the 
mains which would naturally be washed from the laterals 
on their first being laid. By commencing at the foot of 
each ditch, and working upward, he can always get and 
preserve the regular fall, which may be dictated by the 
features of his field, more easily than by working toward 
the outlet. A little practice teaches the ditchers how to 
preserve the grade almost as well as if gauges were em- 
ployed ; but before laying the tiles, the instrument is ap- 



156 

plied to test the bottoms thoroughly. The necessity of this 
precaution will be apparent to any one who reflects that if 
a tile or two in the course of a ditch be set much too high 
or too low at either end, the water quickly forms a basin 
beneath and around, sediment is washed into the adjoining 
pipe, and ultimately even the whole bore is filled and the 
drain stopped. When this happens, it will be indicated 
after a time by the water appearing at the surface of the 
ground above the spot — drawn upward by capillary attrac- 
tion. In such a case the ditch must be reopened and the 
tile relaid. 

" Mr. Johnston says tile-draining pays for itself in two 
seasons, sometimes in one. Thus, in 1847, he bought a 
piece of ten acres to get an outlet for his drains. It was a 
perfect quagmire, covered with coarse aquatic grasses, and 
so unfruitful that it would not give back the seed sown 
upon it. In 1848, a crop of corn was taken from it, which 
was measured, and found to be eic/hty bushels per acre, and 
as, because of the Irish famine, corn was worth $1 per 
bushel that year, this crop paid not only all the expense of 
drainage, but the first cost of the land as well. 

" Another piece of twenty acres, adjoining the farm of 
the late John Delafield, was wet, and would never bring 
more than ten bushels of corn per acre. This was drained 
at a great cost, nearly $30 per acre. The first crop after 
this was 83 bushels and some odd pounds per acre. It was 
weighed and measured by Mr. Delafield, and the County 
Society awarded a premium to Mr. Johnston. Eight acres 
and some rods of this land, at one side, averaged 94 
bushels, or the trifling increase of 84 bushels per acre over 
what it would bear before those insignificant clay tiles were 
buried in the ground. But this increase of crop is not the 
only profit of drainage ; for Mr. Johnston says that on 
drained land one-half the usual quantity of manure suffices 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 157 

to give maximum crops. It is not difficult to find a reason 
for this. When the soil is sodden with water, air cannot 
enter to any extent, and hence oxygen cannot eat off the 
surfaces of soil-particles and prepare food for plants ; thus 
the plant must in great measure depend on the manure for 
sustenance, and of course the more this is the case, the 
more manure must be applied to get good crops. This is 
one reason, but there are others which we might adduce if 
one good one were not sufficient. 

" Mr. Johnston says he never made money until he 
drained, and so convinced is he of the benefits accruing 
from the practice, that he would not hesitate — as he did 
not when the result was much more uncertain than at 
present — to borrow money to drain. Drains well laid 
endure, but unless a farmer intends doing the job well, he 
had best leave it alone, and grow poor, and move out West, 
and all that sort of thing. Occupiers of apparently dry 
land are not safe in concluding that they need not go to 
the expense of draining, for if they will but dig ,a three- 
foot ditch in even the dryest soil, water will be found in 
the bottom at the end of eight hours, and if it does come, 
then draining will pay for itself speedily. For instance, 
Mr. Johnson had a lot of thirteen acres on the shore of the 
lake, where the bank at the foot of the lot was perpendic- 
ular to the depth of thirty or forty feet. He supposed 
from this fact, and because the surface seemed very dry, that 
he had no need to drain it. But somehow he lost his crops 
continually, and as he had put them in as well as he knew 
how, he naturally concluded that he must lay some tile. 
So he engaged an Irishman to open a ditch, with a proviso, 
that if water should come into it in eight hours, he would 
drain the entire piece. The top soil was so hard and dry 
as to need an application of the pick, but at the depth of a 
foot it was found to be so wet and soft that a spade could 



158 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

easily be sunk to the entire depth of the handle. The 
ditches were made, and in less than the specified time, a 
brave lot of water flowed in. The piece was thoroughly- 
drained, and the result was an immense crop of corn. The 
field has regularly borne 60 to 70 bushels since. Corn was 
planted for a first crop in this and the preceding instances, 
because a paying crop is obtained in one year, whereas, if 
wheat were sown, it would be necessary to wait two seasons. 
He always drains when the field is in grass, if possible, for 
the ditches can be made more easily ; and spring is chosen 
that the labor may not be interfered with by frosts. 

" To show how necessary it is to avoid planting trees 
over drains, we quote a case in point. In a lot adjoining 
his house are four large elms, which are marked to be 
felled, and for the reason that the lot was formerly so wet 
that a pond of water stood upon it in winter, and through- 
out the season the children skated and slid upon it. It was 
drained, and all went well for a time ; but after three years 
Mr. Johnston found that his drains did not discharge prop- 
erly, and that in certain places the water came to the sur- 
face, so as to destroy or greatly lessen the crop above them. 
He could not account for the circumstance until he dug 
down to the drain at each of these spots, when, to his sur- 
prise, he found the tile completely choked with fibrous 
roots of the elms, which, naturally seeking the subterranean 
supply of water, had so accumulated in mass as to stop a 
two-inch bore of tile. 

"Mr. Johnston does not think there are a hundred 
acres in any neighborhood that do not need draining, and 
would not pay well for it. Perhaps this may be thought 
an extreme assertion, but it is nearer the fact than most of 
us have been aware. Mr. Johnston is no rich man who 
has carried a favorite hobby without regard to cost or profit. 
He is a hard-working Scotch farmer who commenced a 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 159 

poor man, borrowed money to drain his land, has gradually- 
extended his operations, and is now reaping the benefits, in 
having crops of forty bushels of wheat to the acre. He is 
a gray-haired Nestor, who, after accumulating the experience 
of a long life, is now, at seventy-five years of age, written 
to by strangers in every State of the Union for information, 
not only in drainage matters, but all cognate branches of 
farming. He sits in his homestead a veritable Humboldt 
in his way, dispensing information cheerfully through our 
agricultural papers, and to private correspondents, of whom 
he has recorded 164 who applied to him last year. His 
opinions are, therefore, worth mere than those of a host of 
theoretical men, who write without practice. He says that 
the retrogression of our agriculture in the older States is 
to be accounted for in our lack of drainage, poor feeding of 
stock, which results in giving a small quantity of poor 
manure, and in not keeping enough to make manure. He 
applies 100 loads of manure to the acre at the beginning 
of a rotation, and this lasts throughout the course. He 
learned from his grandfather that no farmer could afford to 
keep any animal that did not improve on his hands, and 
that as soon as it was in good marketable condition it 
should be sold, and replaced by another. This theory he 
has always carried out, and, as a natural consequence, has 
always got higher prices for his beef stock, and a ready 
market even in the dullest times. 

" Although his farm is mainly devoted to wheat, yet a 
considerable area of meadow and some pasture has been 
retained. He now owns about 300 acres of land. The 
yield of wheat has been 40 bushels this year, and in 
former seasons, when his neighbors were reaping 8, 10, or 
15 bushels, he has had 30 and 40. We are informed by 
him that there has been no such crop as the present since 
1845, either in yield or quality; and the absence of weevil 



160 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 

is remarkable. A variety of white wheat from Missouri, 
sown more thinly than usual, has yielded 31 bushels to 
something less than one bushel of seed sown. It headed 
out a fortnight earlier than the Soule's, but ripened later — 
probably because thinly sown. Mr. Johnston thinks we 
have been sowing too thickly for fifteen years past upon 
rich land, and there can be no question but that he is right. 
Still, it is better to take a medium course between thick 
and thin sowing, and thus avoid, on the one hand, rust, 
overcrowding, and waste of seed, and on the other, placing 
an entire crop at the mercy of insects which may attack it. 
" A too common error with improving farmers is that of 
using too small tile for main drains, and too large for 
laterals. Those accustomed to the roomy conduits of ordi- 
nary stone drains, suppose that nothing less than a three- 
inch bore will conduct the drainage from the surface into 
the mains, and curiously enough the same persons, unmind- 
ful of the large area drained by each system of laterals, 
err in using mains but little larger in the bore than the 
latter. If any are willing to look into the results of the 
drainage on our Central Park, the most stupendous work of 
the kind in this country, and one of the best conducted, 
they will find that the one and a-half-inch and two-inch 
tiles there used for laterals do not run full even after the 
most violent aud protracted rains, and yet from a single 
' system' of twelve acres, the discharge, after a recent rain, 
was at the rate of 3,000 gallons per hour. This error of 
using too large tile Mr. Johnston fell into, and now that he 
has learned better, after a twenty years' experience, he 
cautions his brother farmers against using larger than two- 
inch tile for laterals. For mains, each farmer must provide 
as the quantity of water to be conducted is greater or less. 
In many cases Mr. Johuston has used two rows of four-inch, 
in others six-inch, and in one, semi-circles of eleven inches, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 161 

one at top and one at bottom, making a pipe nine inches 
bore to discharge water. At first, he had many to take up 
and replace with large pipe to secure a complete discharge. 
Main drains he makes six to eight inches deeper than those 
emptying into them — not with an abrupt shoulder, but 
leveled up, so that the descent may take place gradually in 
the length of two tiles — 29 inches — and always giving the 
laterals a slight sidewise direction at the end, so that their 
water will be discharged down stream into the mains. 

" Another error he at first fell into was,' in having too 
many drains on lowlands, and not enough on the upland ; 
thus seeking to carry off the effect, while the cause — the 
out-cropping springs on the hill-side — remained untouched. 
Where the source of 'the water is most abundant, the means 
for removing it should most abundantly be furnished. Rain- 
water falls on hills, sinks to an impervious stratum, along 
which it runs until it either finds a porous section through 
which it can fall to a lower level, or not finding such, con- 
tinues on the hard bottom to the side of the hill, where it 
crops out in the form of a spring. If this spring-water is 
suffered to run down hill, it washes the hill-side more or 
less, and coming to the lowland, sinks as far as it may into 
the soil, makes it sodden, and produces bad effects. To 
drain effectually, then, we must cut off the supply above, 
and fewer drains will be necessary below. Here is the 
whole secret of the thing, and here we see why so much 
money is spent to so little purpose by those who think that 
they should only drain the wet lowland. Appearances are 
deceitful, and we should not suppose that a seemingly dry 
upland is really dry." 

Comment on such a character and such a history as 
this is superfluous. Mr. Johnston's example as a tile- 
drainer has been of inestimable value to American 



162 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

farmers. As how such a man feeds his cattle and 
manufactures manure, must be interesting to many, 
the following additional extract on that subject is 
given : 

" A word as to this most important subject. On poor 
lands good crops are got by the use of much manure. 
This all know. But do they know as well that all ma- 
nure is not equally good ; that a cord of it that has been 
leached by drenching rains throughout fall and winter, and 
that has been shone upon by the sun through a hundred 
hot days, has lost the greater part of its efficacy ? That 
the rivulets of brown liquor that run from the barn-yard 
into the public road will make more wheat than the brown- 
washed straw which remains ? And that, be manure never 
so well cared for, its value may be increased at will by the 
food given to the animals that make it ? If they don't, Mr. 
Johnston does ; and so, instead of freezing his stock until 
they are almost in articulo mortis, and starving them on 
dry stocks and refuse hay until the bones well nigh pierce 
the skin, he has comfortable sheds and deeply-littered yards 
for his cattle, and feeds them well at regular intervals with 
sweet hay, oil-cake, bean-meal, and grain. The result — 
but what other could you expect ? — is, that in spring they 
are in store condition ; he loses none, has no disease among 
them, saves a large quantity of such manure that one cord 
of it will bring more wheat or corn than four of ordinary 
dung, and he grows rich. Reader, if you desire to be a 
good farmer, go and do likewise !" 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 163 



CHAPTER VII. 

Getting the first thousand dollars — How to save — Man wants but 
little here below — Actual cost of food — Great successes — A dime 



Economy is the sheet-anchor of every beginner, 
no matter what calling he may adopt. Without it, 
industry and hard work go for almost nothing. As 
a general rule, men more frequently grow rich from 
what they save than from what they make. In 
farming, especially, it may be assumed that this rule 
has no exceptions. Our actual bodily wants are 
few, and may be cheaply supplied without convert- 
ing us into a race of misers. In illustration of these 
positions I have gathered from various sources some 
facts sufficiently striking to command general atten- 
tion, even if they should be found too hard to 
imitate. 

The greatest fortunes have originated in the 
smallest beginnings. Stephen Girard, the million- 
aire of Philadelphia, began the world by selling 
oranges from the head of a barrel in the streets of 
an obscure country town. His remark in after life 
was, that when a man had acquired his first thou- 
sand dollars, there was no difficulty in becoming 
rich. John Jacob Astor began his wonderful career 



164: HOW TO GET A FABM, 

of prosperity by buying the skins of skunks and 
musk-rats. He is reported to have said that it cost 
him more severe effort to get the first thousand dol- 
lars, than all the others. 

Mr. Edwin T. Freedley has written much and well 
on all these subjects. He says, referring to Astor, 
that, — 

" If he had bequeathed to mankind an easy and certain 
method of overcoming the difficulty, the bequest would have 
been a far more valuable one than all his fortune ; entitling 
him to the most conspicuous niche in the gallery of the 
world's benefactors. The task, however, was beyond his 
powers, as it has proved too vast for abler men. Franklin at- 
tempted to teach the true secret of money-catching — the 
certain way to fill empty pockets — with what success we have 
seen. Millionaires have favored the world with their dicta 
and opinions ; but the world has not attached any great im- 
portance to their sayings, and certainly not been much 
benefited by their observations. Mankind generally have 
probably abandoned the idea of discovering a royal road to 
wealth, and concluded that an individual, or nation, in order 
to accumulate capital, must earn something by labor, and 
then save a portion of the product. Something, however, 
may be done — and a good deal more than has been done — 
to facilitate this accumulation; to show labor how, with- 
out extra exertion, it can increase its rewards ; and show 
economy how, without injury to the physical system, less 
may be consumed." 

Mr. Freedley has gone largely and thoroughly 
into all the details of the question as to how to get 
the first thousand dollars. He tells us — 

"First, How to save. The human mind receives its 
first practical lessons in the realities of life at a very early 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 165 

period. The child is initiated and instructed in one of the 
fundamental principles of social science when he discovers 
that he cannot purchase a cake and also keep his penny — 
that he must forego the one or part with the other. As a 
corollary from the proposition, he then comprehends that, 
to keep his pennies, he must deny himself cakes ; and thus, 
by involuntary deduction, he arrives at a fundamental prin- 
ciple of economy, viz. : self-denial in expenditures for per- 
sonal gratification. The limit to which it is possible to 
carry this self-denial without injury to health, or diminution 
of power for production, is somewhat remarkable. The 
cost of what are absolute and actual necessaries of life is, in 
most countries, comparatively little — as is evidenced in cases 
where stern necessity affixes the bounds of possible expen- 
diture. In France, for instance, there are tens of thousands 
of peasants and of operatives whose daily earnings do not 
exceed ten cents, and yet they contrive to live gayly on that 
sum. As a consequence, in no other country has the art of 
cookery made equal progress. In Paris, an enterprising 
woman, Madame Robert, furnishes a dinner daily to six 
thousand workmen for two pence each, her bill of fare be- 
ing cabbage soup, a slice of boiled beef, a piece of bread, 
and a glass of wine. In our Southern States, the food of 
the chief laborers — the men who at one time produced an 
export value of over two hundred millions of dollars per 
annum in cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice — did not probably 
cost their providers ten cents per day. 

" The full allowance for a laboring man and woman — one 
that toils all the hours of daylight in the field — is a peck 
and a half of corn meal, and three pounds of fat bacon. In 
the Cotton States, the average price of the corn is about 
seventy-five cents a bushel, and the price of bacon eight 
cents a pound. This would make the week's rations cost 
fifty-six cents. At still higher rates it would not be a 



166 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

dime a day — in many places, not half that. In many pla- 
ces, though, the negroes do not get half the above rations. 
We might still further illustrate the principle that the cost 
of the substances actually necessary for the support of life is 
small, by reference to the self-imposed abstinence of misers, 
and the compulsory abstinence of prisoners. 

" An item has been circulating in the newspapers, pur- 
porting to be the result of some experiments made in a 
prison, where it was found that ten persons gained four 
pounds of flesh each in two months, eating, for breakfast, 
eight ounces of oatmeal made into porridge, with a pint of 
buttermilk for dinner, three pounds of boiled potatoes, with 
salt; for supper, five ounces of oatmeal porridge, with one 
pint of buttermilk, which cost two pence three farthings 
per day. Ten others gained three and a half pounds of 
flesh, eating six pounds of boiled potatoes daily, taking noth- 
ing with them but salt. Ten others ate the same amount 
of porridge and buttermilk, with the potatoes, as the first 
ten, but for dinner had soup ; they lost one and a quarter 
pounds of flesh each ; and twenty others who had less, 
diminished in size likewise. From this it would seem that 
potatoes are better diet than smaller quanties of animal 
food, at least for persons in confinement. The meat-eaters, 
if they had been allowed ordinary exercise, might have ex- 
hibited a very different result. 

" A few years ago, a Yankee philosopher of the school of 
Diogenes, endeavored to ascertain, by actual experiment, 
how cheaply a man could live ; and his experience he has 
recorded in a volume entitled ' Walden ; or life in the 
Woods.' Mr. Thoreau, the gentleman referred to, being 
possessed of a capital of $25, took possession of a few acres 
of land esteemed worthless, and proceeded to erect a cabin 
by his own labor. The result of his building operations he 
gives, as follows : 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 167 



u i 



I have thus a tight-shingled and plastered house, ten feet 
wide by fifteen feet long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret 
and closet, a large window on each side, two trap-doors, one 
door at the end, and a brick fire-place opposite. The exact 
cost of my house, paying the usual price for such materials 
as I used, but not counting the work, all of which was by 
myself, was as follows ; and I give the details, because very 
few are able to tell exactly what their houses cost, and 
fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various materials 
which compose them : 

Boards, mostly shanty boards, $8 03£ 

Eetuse shingles for roof and sides, 4 00 

Laths, 1 25 

Two second-hand windows, with glass, 2 43 

One thousand old brick, 4 00 

Two casks of lime, 2 40 

Hair, 31 

Mantle-tree iron, 15 

Nails, 3 90 

Hinges and screws, 14 

Latch, 10 

Chalk, 01 

Transportation, 1 40 

In all, $28 12£ 

" * These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, 
and sand, which I claimed by squatter's right. I have also 
a small wood-shed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which 
was left after building the house.' 

"Obtaining his fuel in an adjacent wood, at the cost 
merely of gathering it, he details his house-keeping ex- 
penses as follows : 

" ' The expense of food for eight months, from July 4th 
to March 1st, the time when these estimates were made — 
though I lived there more than two years — not counting 



168 HOW TO GET A FARM 



potatoes, a little green corn, and some peas, which T had 
raised, nor considering the value of what was on hand at 
last date, was — 

Rice $1 73£ 

Molasses 1 73 

Rye meal 1 04f 

Indian meal 99| 

Pork 22 

Flour 88 

Sugar 80 

Lard 65 

Apples 25 

Dried apples 22 

Sweet potatoes 10 

One pumpkin 06 

One watermelon 02 

Salt 03 

Amount $8 74 

"It will thus be perceived that his food cost him in 
money about twenty-seven cents per week. For nearly two 
years after this, he states, that it consisted of rye and In- 
dian meal (without yeast), potatoes, rice, a very little salt 
pork and molasses ; and his drink was water. The cost of 
his clothing for eight months he estimates at $8.40|, ex- 
clusive of washing and mending ; and his other household 
expenses, oil, &c, at $2 — making his whole expenses for 
eight months less than $25. 4 I learned, from my two 
years' experience,' he says, ' that it would cost incredibly 
little trouble to obtain one's necessary food even in this 
latitude ; that a man may use as simple diet as the animals, 
and yet retain health and strength.' 

" Another consoling fact is presented in the fruitfulness 
of the earth, or in the amount of food that can be pro- 
duced upon an acre. Nearly every one in our country can 
command the use of an acre of soil, and let us see how 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 169 

much it is within the bounds of physical possibility to make 
it produce. Simmonds, in his 'Vegetable Kingdom,' re- 
marks, with regard to the comparative productiveness of 
crops of human food, that one hundred bushels of Indian 
corn per acre is not an uncommon crop. One peck per 
week will not only sustain life, but give a man strength to 
labor, if the stomach is properly toned to the amount of 
food. This, then, would feed one man four hundred weeks, 
or almost eight years. ' Four hundred bushels of potatoes 
can also be raised upon an acre ; this would be a bushel a 
week for the same length of time, and the actual weight of 
an acre of sweet potatoes is 21,344 pounds, which is not 
considered an extraordinary crop. This would feed a man 
(six pounds a day) for 3,55V days, or nine years and two- 
thirds. To vary the diet, we will occasionally give rice, 
which has been grown at the rate of ninety-three bushels 
to the acre over an entire field. This, at forty-five pounds 
to the bushel, would be 1,185 pounds; or, at twenty-eight 
pounds to the bushel, when husked, 2,604 pounds ; which, 
at two pounds a day, would feed a man 1,302 days, or more 
than three and a-half years.' " 

" Such considerations as these are full of consolation to 
the aspiring, and of encouragement to the very poor. 
None need despair, and moreover, none need be dishonest. 
It is possible to accumulate capital, aye, to get the first 
thousand dollars, from an income not exceeding the most 
moderate earnings or wages. And let it be inscribed on the 
lintel of every dwelling — on the desks in every counting- 
house — on the pericardium of every heart — It is better to 
live on ten cents a day than to do a wrong for the sake of 
money. 

" Again, the economy that leads to wealth implies a ju- 
dicious use and profitable investment of savings. A saving 
of even a small sum will amount, it is true, within the 



170 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

limits of an ordinary life, to a handsome aggregate; but 
rapid accumulation in this way can only be attained when 
money reproduces itself through the agency of compound 
interest. The wonderful ratio of increase effected by this 
means, can only be understood by those who have ex- 
perienced it — though a glimmering of the reality may be 
obtained by a glance at the following familiar table, interest 
being calculated at six per cent.: 



Savings 


In 10 


In 20 


In 30 


In 40 


In 50 


Savinss 


in 1 Year. 


Years. 


Years. 


Years. 


Years. 


Years. 


in 1 Day. 


$10 


$130 


$360 


$790 


$1,540 


$2,900 


2| cts. 


20 


260 


720 


1,580 


3,080 


5,800 


5* 


30 


390 


1,080 


2,370 


4,620 


8,700 


8i 


40 


520 


1,440 


3,160 


5,160 


11,600 


11 


50 


650 


1,860 


3,950 


7,700 


14,600 


13| 



"The most notable instance that now occurs to me of 
remarkable success attained through attention to the prompt 
investment of small sums, is afforded in the annals of 
Abraham Shriver, of Frederick County, Maryland. With 
no other resources than a salary of $1,400 a year as judge 
of a court of inferior jurisdiction, and a small farm of four- 
teen acres, he succeeded in keeping his personal expenses 
within the receipts from his farm, which he cultivated like a 
garden ; and by promptly investing his salary every quarter- 
day — sometimes borrowing for the purpose of anticipating 
or securing an investment promptly at the time — he ac- 
cumulated an estate of $150,000. Among the records of 
Savings Banks, which perform a most useful purpose in col- 
lecting and rendering available the dribblets of wealth, no 
doubt there are many other remarkable instances. In Mas- 
sachusetts, the deposits in Savings Banks amount to over 
$23,000,000. 

" 3. Another element of economy, essential to the ac- 
cumulation of capital, is protection against great losses by 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 171 

carefully providing against small ones. The importance of 
this principle is thus illustrated by M. Say, a political 
economist : 

" ' Being in the country, I had an example of one of 
those small losses which a family is exposed to through 
negligence. From the want of a latch of small value, the 
wicket of^ a barn yard, looking to the field, was left open. 
Every one who went through, drew the door to; but having 
no means to fasten it, it re-opened. One day a fine pig got 
out, and ran into the woods, and immediately all the world 
was after it. The gardener, the cook, dairy-maid, all ran 
to recover the swine. The gardener got sight of him first, 
and jumped over a ditch to stop him, he sprained his ankle, 
and was confined a fortnight to the house. The cook, on 
her return, found all the linen she had left to dry by the 
fire, burned ; and the dairy-maid, having ran off before she 
tied the cows, one of them broke the leg of a colt in the 
stable. The gardener's lost time was worth twenty crowns, 
valuing his pains at nothing. The linen burned and the 
colt spoiled were worth as much more. Here is a loss of 
forty crowns, and much pain and trouble, vexation and in- 
convenience, for the want of a latch, which would have 
cost three pence ; and the loss, through careless neglect, 
falls on a family little able to support it.' 

"Proceeding now to inquire how to labor with pre fit, 
we remark first, that capital is a general term for the ac- 
cumulated stock of former labor. Its father is labor, and 
its mother economy. Ties of consanguinity, however, it 
was long ago discovered, are no preventive against unseemly 
contention. It is an old proverb, ' When two men ride on 
one horse, one must ride behind,' but it is not always easy 
to decide the question of precedence between them. In 
primitive and unsettled states of society, labor is more 
powerful than capital. In pruning the luxuriance of na- 



172 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

ture, and subjugating it to man's uses, the capitalist shrinks 
into insignificance beside the man of the strong arm and 
the sharp axe. But as soon as population approaches 
density, capital vaults into the saddle, and labor must ride 
on the crupper. In society, as at present developed, espe- 
cially in the old world, a man who has nothing but ordi- 
nary unskilled labor to offer in the market, finds that, 

" ' To beg, or to borrow, or to get one's own — 
'Tis the very worst world that ever was known.' 

" Wages would seem to be regulated by the cost of the 
things supposed to be necessary to support life ; and he who 
would save a portion of his earnings, must reduce his ex- 
penditures for living to a very low standard. Nevertheless, 
there are many well authenticated instances of men who, 
even in the old world, accumulated some capital from the 
proceeds of day labor, and eventually became wealthy. 
How much may be accomplished by an indomitable will — 
a resolute determination to overcome all obstacles — Foster 
has illustrated in his " Essay on Decision of Character.'' 
He refers to a young man who, having expended a large 
fortune in prodigality, sat down on the brow of an eminence 
overlooking what were lately his estates, and there resolved 
that all these estates should be his again. 

" ' He had formed his plan, too, which he instantly began 
to execute. He walked hastily forward, determined to 
seize the very first opportunity, of however humble a kind, 
to gain any money, though it were never so despicable a 
trifle, and resolved absolutely not to spend, if he could help 
it, a farthing of whatever he might obtain. The first thing 
that drew his attention was a heap of coals, shot out of a 
cart on a pavement before a house. He offered himself to 
shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to 
be laid, and was employed. He received a few pence for 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 173 

the labor ; and then, in pursuance of the saving part of his 
plan, requested some small gratuity of meat and drink, 
which was given him. He then looked out for the next 
thing that might chance to offer, and went with indefatigable 
industry through a succession of servile employments, in 
different places, of longer and shorter duration, still scru- 
pulously avoiding, as far as possible, the expense of a penny. 
He promptly seized every opportunity which could advance 
his design, without regarding the meanness of occupation 
or appearance. By this method he had gained, after a 
considerable time, money enough to purchase, in order to 
sell again, a few cattle, of which he had taken pains to un- 
derstand the value. He speedily but cautiously turned his 
first gains into second advantages; retained, without a 
single deviation, his extreme parsimony, and thus advanced, 
by degrees, into larger transactions and incipient wealth. I 
did not hear, or have forgotten, the continued course of his 
life ; but the final result was, that he more than recovered 
his lost possessions, and died an old miser, worth £60,000.' 
"In the United States, similar instances of moderate 
fortunes acquired through persevering industry, and acquired, 
too, without the sin of covetousness, are so numerous, that 
a volume would hardly contain them. A leading builder, 
in New York city, now entitled to a place in the book of 
the ' Rich Men,' was, some years ago, a bricklayer's laborer, 
at one dollar per day. He states that out of this sum he 
always contrived to save fifty cents per day, and laid by 
$ 1 80 the first year. The senior members of many a staunch 
firm commenced their connection with mercantile life by 
sweeping out the store in which their fortunes were after- 
wards acquired. But, notwithstanding the many cheering 
exceptions to the rule, it is nevertheless true, that ordinary 
unskilled labor can, at best, make but slow progress toward 
the accumulation of capital. 



174 

" Secondly. The rewards of labor and the facility for the 
acquisition of capital are increased by the possession of 
some peculiar knowledge or skill. A man's pecuniary value 
may be said to augment in exact proportion to the amount 
of his effective intelligence, superadded to ordinary phys- 
ical power. The demand for educated labor in progressive 
countries so far exceeds the supply, that it may, to a cer- 
tain extent, dictate its rewards. Men, animals, and ma- 
chines, are everywhere working fruitlessly, or unprofitable, 
for want of suitable persons to direct their movements ; 
enterprises of the first magnitude languish for want of 
competent managers ; and regions, where nature has been 
most bounteous in her gifts, are yet comparatively a wilder- 
ness, because the arts and mechanism of civilization have 
not been introduced. The soil of Uruguay, for instance, 
would produce wheat and Indian corn abundantly and lux- 
uriantly ; but its adaptation for the growth of these cereals 
is rendered comparatively worthless by the absence of suit- 
able mills to grind the products. The sugar-cane of the 
Southern States, and especially in the Tropics, is wasted 
immensely, for want of the proper machines and the requi- 
site skill to extract all the sugar from the juice. There are 
dies in the Indies rarer than the cochineal ; fibrous plants 
more valuable than any flax or hemp ; substances more 
oleaginous than linseed ; but they are unappreciated, be- 
cause the educated mechanism has not as yet prepared them 
for the world's markets. A quick brain and a ready hand 
constitute a man Fortune's master. Even women, limited 
as their opportunities are for gaining a livelihood, inde- 
pendently of being a helpmate to man, wonderfully enlarge 
the scope of their powers when they combine administra- 
tive and manipulative skill. As managers of work-rooms, 
superintendents, etc., women are especially in demand ; and, 
if qualified, can readily earn from $6 to $12 per week. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 175 

" Thirdly. Again, the accumulation of capital may be 
accelerated by associating with personal labor some respons- 
ibility. Capitalists, iu general, are timid, and desire to pro- 
tect themselves against extraordinary expenses. It is in the 
nature of capital to surround itself with safeguards, and it 
willingly pays a premium for guarantees. Thus, though 
an employer may be able to calculate the cost of an under- 
taking as measured by the labor involved, he would yet 
prefer to pay something additional to insure its execution 
for a definite sum. There are many instances, however, 
where the skilled laborer alone can form an estimate of the 
cost ; and in such cases he may, by shrewd bargaining, ob- 
tain liberal compensation for the work. Many of those who 
have been remarkably successful in accumulating capital, 
have done so by advancing, as soon as possible, from the 
position of simple laborer to that of contractor. 

" Fourthly. But the lever of greatest efficiency in pro- 
moting accumulation is association of several for a common 
purpose. Man, however skillful, is, if unaided by others, a 
very helpless being. There are tribes, we are told, whose 
cardinal principle it is for each individual to act independ- 
ently of his fellows, never helping each other ; but their 
condition, as may be supposed, is but little better than that 
of the wild animals with which they are surrounded. AH 
of man's most wonderful achievements, those which, if con- 
sidered disconnectedly from their performance, seem prac- 
tically and physically impossible, are explained by the 
mystical power embodied in a combination of numbers for 
a common purpose. 

" And lastly, the accumulated stock of the products of 
labor may be vastly increased by the judicious use of credit. 
Credit is the offspring of good laws and good character. 
It is one of the advantages of legal protection for person 
and property that the owners of capital are willing to lend 



176 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

it, trusting to the honesty of the borrower that he will re- 
turn it, or its equivalent, with rent or interest for its use. 
It is one of the advantages of good character, and known 
or presumed punctuality in dealing, that a man may, on 
his own security, obtain the possession and use of a reason- 
able amount of capital. Credit, being the representative of 
capital, performs many of its functions, and confers upon 
the borrower the same benefits, less the charge for its use. 
The advantages of credit are nowhere more strikingly ex- 
emplified than in the rapid material progress of the United 
States ; and in no other country are the profits from its use so 
large, when combined with industry and mechanical skill. 

" An instance is recorded of a farmer, in Peoria County, 
Illinois, who lived on a rented farm of eighty acres, for 
which he paid two hundred dollars rent for the land, and 
twenty-six dollars for the house; he did all his work him- 
self, except some help in planting corn ; had one team of 
horses; and, after paying his rent and supporting his 
family, cleared one thousand dollars a year. The Rev. 
John S. Barger, a Methodist clergyman, in Illinois, fur- 
nishes the following interesting account of two Mr. Funks, 
Jesse and Isaac — no relation of Peter, whose address, as 
heretofore, is New York city : 

" 4 1 will now give you a concise history of the operations 
of Mr. Funk. Both before and after his marriage, he had 
made rails for his neighbors at twenty-five cents per hun- 
dred. But when the lands where he lived came into 
market, twenty -five years ago, he had saved of his five 
years' earnings $1,400, and says if he had invested it all 
in lands, he would now have been rich. With two hundred 
dollars he bought his first quarter section, and loaned to his 
neighbors eight hundred dollars to buy their homes ; and 
with the remaining four hundred he purchased a lot of 
cattle. With this beginning, Mr. Funk now owns seven 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 177 

thousand acres of land, has near twenty-seven hundred in 
cultivation, and his sales of cattle and hogs, at the Chicago 
market, amounted to a little over forty-four thousand dol- 
lars in a single year. 

M ' Mr. Isaac Funk, of Funk's Grove, nine miles distant 
from his brother Jesse, and ten miles northwest from 
Bloomington, on the Mississippi and Chicago Railroad, 
began the world in Illinois at the same time, having a 
little the advantage of Jesse, so far as having a little bor- 
rowed capital. He now owns about twenty-seven thousand 
acres of land ; has about four thousand acres in cultivation ; 
and his last sales of cattle at Chicago amounted to $60,000.' 

" In California, farming has yielded equally good returns. 
A gentleman writes : 

" The following facts have come under our knowledge. 
A German farmer squatted on one hundred and sixty acres 
of ground, some four years ago. Although he began with- 
out a halfpenny, he made in the first year, by wheat grow- 
ing, the handsome sum of nine hundred dollars, besides 
paying for his land at one dollar per acre, and for his im- 
plements, and buying horses, cows, and oxen, building his 
house, and completing his fence. For the last two years, 
his field of forty acres has yielded him 1,100 bushels of 
wheat per annum, selling for net $1,400 ; his eggs, poultry, 
vegetables, fruits, &c, brought in four hundred dollars. 
He estimates Jiis increase in cattle at eight hundred dollars, 
and the increase in value of the land at three hundred and 
twenty dollars. Besides this, according to his own account, 
he had $2,500 cash in the bank ; and, in fact, considered 
he was worth $10,000, and all this the result of four years 
judicious labor, single-handed, and commencing totally 
without capital. A field of 500 acres of wheat has pro- 
duced, within the last four years, a total of 63,220 bushels, 

of the value of $108,000. 

8* 



178 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

"An Irish farmer began farming in 1853 with the small 
sum of $300, made in the mines in company with his 
nephew, a young lad. He first bought two hundred acres 
of land, paying a deposit on the same ; and the rest of the 
mooey was invested in a horse, a cow, and the necessary 
implements. The first year, his fenced-in fields yielded 
wheat to the value of $800, which enabled him to pay the 
remainder of his money for his land, besides repaying him 
for that expended on his stock. He owns six hundred 
acres of land, and twenty-eight head of cattle, including 
seven horses ; together with lots of pigs, sheep, and poultry. 
His arable land is now forty-five acres, besides which he 
has a large orchard and kitchen garden. In a word, he 
has made himself a very snug, comfortable home, and 
something like $4,000 to boot. 

"In 1852, an Englishman and two Germans came from 
the mines, with a united capital of thirteen hundred dollars. 
They bought six hundred and forty acres of land, and 
farmed it. Last year one of the Germans sold his share in 
the increased concern for nine thousand dollars. Some 
years ago, an intimate acquaintance of ours, a German, in 
company with another as partner, bought a farm, and took 
to cultivating it and raising cattle. He now owns upwards 
of fifteen thousand acres of land, and is worth pretty nearly 
one hundred thousand dollars. This person, too, began 
without a halfpenny. 

" The Germans are proverbially a frugal, money-making 
people. One of the Teutons, in reply to a question pro- 
pounded at the Philadelphia Board of Trade, in relation to 
discounts, is reported to have revealed the secret of his 
success as follows : ' I open von grocery, mit cot-fish, and 
molasses, and one barrel of viskey. Veil, I goes on und by 
and by I gets a box of sugar and one box of tea ; und by 
and by I gets a big grocery store mit a box china man in 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 179 

der winder and a horse and wagon to go to market. But 
I know notin about der book-keeping nor dish-kounts, nor 
der per cents, but den I tells you vat I knows : / knows 
ven I buys sugar for a Jive cent and sells it for a ten cent, 
den I makes money? 

" The cultivation of fruits and vegetables, especially in 
the vicinity of large cities, is, if skillfully managed, almost 
uniformly a profitable business. An acre of superior pear 
trees has produced to their owner $2,650 in one season. 
A gentleman who is engaged in cultivating strawberries on 
ten acres, eight miles from Cincinnati, states that the gross 
receipts of his patch, in a single season, were $2,210. The 
expense of picking, including the boarding of the hands, 
was two hundred and twenty-five dollars, and the expenses 
of marketing twenty-five dollars. The probable cost of 
cultivation per annum is fifteen dollars per acre. This 
gentleman cultivates all his strawberries on new but very 
hilly ground. 

" Nurseries generally yield excellent returns for the skill 
and well-directed labor expended upon them, though, to 
conduct them successfully, considerable capital is also re- 
quired. A nursery in the western part of the State of 
New York, is reported to have made a profit of $80,000 in 
one year, and another of $20,000. A writer describes a 
half acre of seedling pears that he saw, as worth, at market 
prices, ten thousand dollars." 

The foregoing appropriate extracts from an article 
of Mr. Freedley afford the reader a favorable in- 
sight to the practical character of his labors. His 
works on kindred subjects are crowded with facts so 
pertinent to the design of this volume, that every 
interested reader may study them with advantage. 
But instances of individual success, equally striking 



180 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

with any which he has recited, may he found in all 
sections of our country. 

To return to the consideration of the actual cost of 
living, I give the lively and instructive narrative of 
Mr. Solon Robinson, of New York, showing how a 
widow supported herself and four children on a 
dime a day : 

" I had," said she, " one day last week, only one dime in 
the world, and that was to feed me and my four children 
all day ; for I would not ask for credit, and I would not 
borrow, and I never did beg. I did live through the day, 
and I did not go hungry. I fed myself and family with 
one dime." 

" How ?" 

" Oh, that was not all. I bought fuel, too." 

" What ! with one dime ?" 

" Yes, with one dime ! I bought two cents' worth of 
coke, because that is cheaper than coal, and because I could 
kindle it with a piece of paper in my little furnace with two 
or three little bits of charcoal that some careless boy had 
dropped in the street just in my path. With three cents I 
bought a scraggy piece of salt pork, half fat and half lean. 
There might have been half a pound of it — the man did 
not weigh it. Now, half my money was gone, and the 
show for breakfast, dinner, and supper, was certainly a very 
poor one. With the rest of my dime I bought four cents' 
worth of white beans. By-the-by, I got these at night, and 
soaked them in tepid water on a neighbor's stove till morn- 
ing. I had one cent left. I bought one cent's worth of corn- 
meal, and the grocery man gave me a red-pepper pod." 

" What was that for ?" 

" Wait a little — you shall know. Of all things, peppers 
and onions are appreciated by the poor in winter, because 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 181 

they help to keep them warm. With my meal I made 
three dumplings, and these, with the pork and the pepper- 
pod, I put into the pot with the beans and plenty of water 
(for the pork was salt), and boiled the whole two hours ; 
and then we had breakfast, for it was time for the children 
to go to school. We ate one of the dumplings, and each 
had a plate of the soup for breakfast, and a very good 
breakfast it was. 

" I kept the pot boiling as long as my coke lasted, and at 
dinner we ate half the meat, half the soup, and one of the 
dumplings. We had the same allowance for supper ; and 
the children were better satisfied than I have sometimes seen 
them when our food has cost five times as much. The next 
day we had another dime — it was all I could earn for all I 
could get to do — two pairs of men's drawers each day, at 
five cents a pair — and on that we lived — lived well. We 
had a change, too, for instead of the cornmeal and beans, 
I got four cents' worth of oatmeal and one cent's worth of 
potatoes — small potatoes because I could get more of them. 
I washed them clean, so as not to waste anything by paring, 
and cut them up, and boiled them all to pieces with the 
meat and meal." 

" Which went the farthest ?" 

" I can't say. We ate it all each day, and didn't feel the 
want of more, though the children said : * Ma, don't you 
wish we had a piece of bread and butter, to finish off with V 
It would have been good, to be sure ; but, bless me ! what 
would a dime's worth of bread and butter be for my family ? 
But I had another change the next day." 

" What, for another dime?" 

" Yes, that was all we had, day after day. We had to 
live on it. It was very hard, to be sure ; but it has taught 
me something." 

"What is that?" 



182 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

" That poor folks could live a great deal cheaper and 
better than they do, if they only knew how to economize 
their food. You have told them how, but they are slow 
to learn, or loth to change from foolish old practices." 

" What was your next change?" 

" Oh, yes, I was about to tell you that. Well, I went to 
the butcher's the night before, and bought five cents' worth 
of little scrap pieces of lean beef, and I declare I think I 
got as much as a pound, and this I cut up into bits, and 
soaked over night — an all-important process for soup or a 
stew — cooking it in the same water. Then I bought two 
cents' worth of potatoes and one cent's worth of meal — 
that made the eight cents ; two had to go for fuel every 
day, and the paper I got my purchases in served for kin- 
dling. The meal I wet up into stiff dough, and worked out 
into little round balls, about as big as grapes, and the pota- 
toes I cut up into slices, and all together made a stew, or 
chowder, seasoned with a small onion and part of a pepper- 
pod that I got with the potatoes. It was very good, but it 
did not go quite so far as the soup either day, or else the 
fresh meat tasted so good that we wanted to eat more. 
But I can tell you, small as it may seem to you, there is a 
great deal of good eating in one dime." 

" So there is — what a pity everybody don't know it ! 
What a world of good might be done with a dime ! 

" Reader, have you got a dime — that is, to spare — only 
one dime ? Give it to that poor widow. Give it ? No ; 
you owe it. She has given you twice its value, whether 
you are one that will feast to-day on a dollar, or be stinted 
with a dime. She has taught you what you never knew 
before — the value of one dime." 

In his essay on " Economy of Food," Mr. Eob- 
inson speaks as follows : 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 183 

" Meats generally are about three-fourths water ; and 
milk, as it comes from the cow, over ninety per cent. 
How is it as it comes from the milkman ? It is true that 
chemical analysis does not give us the exact comparative 
value of food, but with that, and the prices of the various 
articles, it cannot be a hard matter to determine what is 
the cheapest or most economical kind of food for us to use. 
Perhaps of all the articles named, taking into account the 
price and nutritious qualities, oatmeal will give the greatest 
amount of nutriment for the least money. But where will 
you find it in use ? Not one family in a thousand ever saw 
the article ; not one in a hundred ever heard of it ; and 
many who have heard of it have a vague impression that 
none but starving Scotch or Irish ever use it; and, in short, 
that oats, in America, are only fit food for pigs and horses. 
It is a great mistake. Oatmeal is excellent in porridge, and 
all kinds of cooking of that sort, and oatmeal cakes are 
sweet, nutritious, and an antidote for dyspepsia. Just now, 
we believe, oats are the cheapest of any grain in the mar- 
ket, and it is a settled fact that oats give the greatest 
amount of power of any grain consumed by man or beast. 
This cheap food only needs to be fashionable, to be ex- 
tremely popular among laborers, all of whom, to say noth- 
ing of other classes, eat too much fine-flour bread." 

Again, he says : 

" Look at the Scotch with their oatmeal porridge, as ro- 
bust a set of men as ever lived. A Highlander will scale 
mountains all day upon a diet of oatmeal stirred in water 
fresh from a gurgling spring with his finger, in a leather 
cup. Another excellent, though little used, breadstuff, par- 
ticularly for the sedentary, or persons of costive habits, is 
cracked wheat, or wheaten grits, as the article is called. 
That and Graham flour should be used in preference, at 



184: HOW TO GET A FARM, 

tlie same price per pound, to white flour, because more 
healthy and more nutritious. One hundred pounds of Gra- 
ham flour is worth full as much in a family as one hundred 
and thirty-three pounds of superfine white flour. Corn- 
meal usually costs less than half the price of flour. It is 
worth twice as much. It is not so economical in summer, 
because it takes so much fire to cook it. The first great 
error in preparing cornmeal is in grinding it too much, and 
next in not cooking it enough. Cornmeal mush should 
boil two hours ; it is better if boiled four, and not fit to eat 
if boiled less than one hour. Buckwheat flour should never 
be purchased by a family who are obliged to economize 
food. It is dear at any price, because it must be floated in 
dear butter to be eaten, and then it is not healthy. Oatmeal 
makes as good cakes as buckwheat, and far more nutritious. 
But it is more nutritious and is particularly healthy for chil- 
dren, in the form of porridge." 

Thousands of the poor, in all ages, have studied 
the great problem of how to get rich. How to get 
a farm, as the stepping-stone to wealth, is shown in 
a new light in the following article from the New 
York Tribune for August, 1859 : 

" Carlyle has said somewhere that the only state of future 
torment much regarded or feared now-a-days, is Poverty. 
How to make money — how to acquire rapidly abundant 
wealth — is the general and anxious inquiry. Somebody 
has lately published a book purporting to lay bare the 
whole art and mystery of making money — including the 
difficult feat of making the first $1,000 — for the paltry 
sum of one dollar. Fired with emulation, we propose to 
contribute our mite toward the development of auriferous 
science. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 185 

" Let us begin by frankly confessing that we know no 
royal road to desirable wealth, and greatly doubt the exist- 
ence of any. We have heard of this or that man making 
a great pile in a day, or night, or some other short period, 
by speculation, forestalling, gambling, or something of the 
sort, but have no faith in that sort of acquisition as either 
desirable or (save in rare instances) practicable. The Old 
Book says, ' He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be 
innocent' — and a more important truth has rarely appeared 
in any book. If those who are hot on the scent of coffee 
plantations in Central America or sugar estates in Cuba 
don't believe it now, ninety-nine in every hundred of them 
will rue their skepticism before they shall be ten years older. 

" Nor can we advise any one to rush to Pike's Peak in 
quest of the eagerly-coveted gold. A good many are now 
streaming thither, and more perhaps will follow them, 
some of whom will probably succeed in their quest, while 
a far larger number will return poorer than they went, be- 
sides being sick, sore and weary. Of the few who make 
anything in the new Dorado, many more will owe their 
good fortune to success in gambling or peddling than in 
personally digging gold. Still less can we counsel any 
young man to seek a classic education, with a view to emi- 
nence in some profession. The professions are all over- 
done ; it would be a blessed thing for all if not another 
lawyer or doctor should be ground out during the next ten 
years. The market is already glutted, and the stock held 
for a better demand is deplorably heavy. Nor do we think 
it well for even one more youth to addict himself to trade. 
There are this day as many as two persons engaged in sell- 
ing goods to each twenty families throughout the country. 
In other words : Productive industry is paying about one- 
quarter of its products for the trouble of exchanging them, 
not taking into account the cost of transportation. If 



186 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

we could reduce our aggregate of merchants of all grades 
by three-fourths, the remainder might thrive, while selling 
goods at one-half the profit now charged. And yet we be- 
lieve the world never afforded larger or better opportuni- 
ties for acquiring wealth than it does just now ; and that 
there is no better place for trying than our own country 
affords. Let us give a few hints on this head to those who 
may need them. 

" We will suppose the inquirer to be a young man of fif- 
teen to five-and-twenty, whose educational advantages have 
been meager, and who is not thoroughly qualified for any 
field of productive labor. How shall he set about getting 
rich ? We say : 

" 1. Consider whether you would prefer to be a farmer or 
an artisan ; and, if the latter, of what trade. Having de- 
cided, keep your eye steadily on the pursuit you prefer, and 
find employment in it so soon as possible — doing meantime 
the best thing that offers, though that be chopping wood at 
two shillings per cord. Never be idle a secular day when 
there is any work to be had ; and if there is absolutely 
none where you now are, keep in motion towards a less 
crowded locality till you find some. Having found work, 
stick to it heartily and faithfully, and, if it pays you but 
twenty-five cents per day, contrive some way of living upon 
twenty. 

" Whenever you can find employment in the pursuit you 
mean to live by, accept it, unless withheld by the necessity 
of earning more at. something else in order to pay your debts. 
And, in deciding where first to follow so as in time to master 
the calling you have chosen, prefer the place where you can 
learn most and fastest to that where you can obtain the 
largest pay. 

" 3. Be sure that work and thought go together. Keep 
your eyes wide open and your mind intent and active. Re- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 187 

solve not only to keep trying till you know how to do ev- 
erything just right, and then do it no otherwise than that, 
but to know tvhy that is the best way — its reason in the na- 
ture of things. If you have chosen farming, be sure to find 
some time in each week to read the best treatises on that 
noble calling, and keep a keen eye on all the periodicals 
within reach that treat of it. Take the best one yourself, 
and study it carefully. In short, give the next two, three 
or four years to the vital work of mastering your chosen 
pursuit, so that thenceforth, through every day learning, 
you may confidently measure your strength in it with any 
competitor. 

" 4. Having thus mastered your calling, go to work in it 
for others for the best wages you can obtain, resolved so to 
earn them that you will be morally certain to command a 
larger sum next year. Thus persevere in industry, frugal- 
ity and temperance, carefully economizing your time and 
means, until you shall have earned enough to strike out 
boldly for yourself. 

" 5. By this time you will have made friends, especially 
among those of kindred position and habits to your own ; 
and now you can make that sympathy available for your 
mutual good. Have as many as possible join you in a pur- 
chase of land to be divided among you according to your 
several means and needs; whereby your wealth may be 
doubled in a month. For example : two or three hundred 
young men of twenty to thirty, knowing and trusting each 
other, and each of them a good, thrifty, likely farmer or 
mechanic, having severally earned and saved from $200 up 
to $2,000, resolve to buy and settle together. So they send 
out two or three of their number to look and buy lands for 
them — in any of the new or of the border Slave States, 
where even improved lands are cheaper than elsewhere on 
earth. They select and purchase from 2,000 to 10,000 



188 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

acres of land, according to the price and their means, sur- 
vey it into large and small farms and village lots, and sell it 
at auction to the highest bidder, each member being en- 
titled to buy to the extent of his investment in the pur- 
chase, and as much more as he can pay for — each being 
. pledged to settle and improve his tract. The hour this is 
done and the tract all settled, the members' lands alone are 
worth double their cost — often much more. The farmers 
have thus secured lands at wilderness prices, and secured at 
the same time the vicinage of millers, merchants, mechan- 
ics, &c, which gives additional value to lands long since 
improved ; while the carpenter, shoemaker, blacksmith, 
tailor, tinner, &c, &c, have acquired not merely homes, 
but life-long customers at the lowest possible prices. Con- 
certed Emigration is a plan by which the industrious can 
at least double their moderate means without making a 
profit out of anybody else ; and there are millions of our 
people, especially of the young, who might speedily double 
their little properties by means of it. 

" 6. Having thus made a home, resolve to spend your re- 
maining days there, and to be one of the best farmers or 
artisans to be found there or elsewhere. Work steadily 
but not immoderately ; think, observe and read so as to 
make every blow tell. If your land is mainly timbered, 
contrive a way to make the timber, if possible, a source of 
profit ; if the soil is rather lean, devote all the time not ab- 
solutely needed otherwise to making it richer. Sell only 
for pay down, and buy likewise for cash. Do not allow 
your wants to grow faster than your means. Make each 
mistake or failure a source of instruction and improvement. 
Form no bad habits — have no liquor on your premises, and 
no tobacco unless to repel vermin. Have no capital locked 
up in land that you do not use, unless it be woodland rap- 
idly enhancing in value ; nor in fat horses, showy turnouts, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 189 

nor any sort of fancy property — at least, not till you shall 
be out of debt, with good buildings, well fenced fields, and 
everything comfortable about you. Thus move on quietly 
and steadily ; and if you have no bad luck, you may be be- 
yond the reach or fear of want in five years, in comfortable 
circumstances by the end of ten, and as well off as a man 
need be within twenty. 

" Do you say this seems a slow, humdrum, petty way of 
getting rich ? Well, it is not quite so fast as gambling, or 
slave-trading, or making $100,000 in a month by cornering 
an adverse party in the stock market; but let two hundred 
young men try the course we have so rapidly outlined, 
against an equal number who try any radically different 
course — gold-mining, trading, speculating, or the profes- 
sions — and if our party do not, in the average, come out 
very far ahead, we shall be forced to conclude that the 
world is a lottery and that Chance is God." 



190 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



CHAPTER Yin. 

The Long Island Barrens — Their Condition, Price, and Crops. 

Within one to three hours' ride of the city of 
New York, by railroad, there lies a vast body of un- 
cultivated land popularly known as " The Barrens." 
Why an area so extensive should have remained un- 
appropriated and idle, within cheap and easy reach 
of a population of nearly a million of consumers, 
has long been a subject for wonder and speculation. 
But of late years the public attention has been more 
particularly turned in that direction, principally by 
publications of the Farmers' Club of the American 
Institute, the writings of lion. John A. Dix, Mr. 
Thomas Schnebly, Dr. E. F. Peck and others, from 
whose examinations and reports the substance of the 
following account has been compiled. 

It would perhaps be difficult to say exactly how 
these lands first acquired the damaging name of 
" Barrens." In the early settlement of Long Island 
they secured a very different character, and were 
held in the highest esteem by all who either de- 
scribed or lived upon them. The writers of two 
centuries ago referred to them as exceedingly fruit- 
ful, with a fine climate, and beautiful streams and 
bays abounding in all kinds of fish and water fowl. 
They enumerate the grains, the fruits, and the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 191 

grasses that they produced. None of them mention 
the land as being poor or barren. The plains, free 
from timber, and covered with grass, were wonder- 
ful as natural curiosities. A traveller in 1759, says 
that strangers were always taken to them as the only 
great curiosity of the kind then known in America. 
Other portions of the island were covered with im- 
mense forests. 

It is suggested by Mr. Schnebly that the charac- 
ter of barrens attached to these lands in conse- 
quence of their being held in very large bodies, 
whose owners cultivated only a few acres, allowing 
the forest to occupy the remainder. The island was 
mapped out by patents owned by various parties, 
whose possessions extended from the waters on the 
north and south sides to the middle and woodlands 
in the centre. The Nicholas patent, at West Islip, 
contained originally ten miles square. There were 
numerous other holders of enormous tracts. They 
made little effort at cultivation, neither did they de- 
sire any others to improve them, " and consequently 
shut out all investigation, and while they lived 
among gorgeous scenery, a genial climate, and on 
so productive a soil, were satisfied with cultivating 
a few acres to supply their wants, leaving the bal- 
ance of their territory to unproductiveness, which 
in time, for that reason, became known as the wild 
or wood lands of Long Island." 

Such is Mr. Schnebly's explanation. More mod- 
ern times have substituted " barren" for " wild." 
But the fact of land being thus held in vast tracts 
on Long Island affords another illustration of the 



192 

evils inseparable from a land monopoly. These 
owners became an aristocracy. They not only fail- 
ed to improve their possessions, but, by refusing to 
sell, prevented others from doing so. When the 
monopoly was broken up by their descendants di- 
viding and selling, population flowed in and farms 
were established. Emancipation in Russia is pro- 
ducing like results, and such will follow the enact- 
ment of the Homestead Law. 

The great bulk of these lands were comparatively 
inaccessible to the public. There were roads, it is 
true, but they were few in number. The island was 
not a thoroughfare, having crowds of travellers 
from other States passing over its soil. Few, there- 
fore, saw these tracts, and these few, seeing that 
they were uncultivated, adopted and propagated 
still further the popular idea that they were barren. 
The opening of the Long Island railroad served to 
dissipate this delusion. It opened up a tract of 
country ninety -five miles in length. 

In September, 1860, the Farmers' Club made ex- 
cursions over the railroad for the purpose of exam- 
ining the Barrens. They say that " a stranger un- 
acquainted with the country would readily remark 
the immense quantity of uncultivated land traversed 
by the railroad, with only here and there a spot ex- 
hibiting tillage, and hence the inquiry would nat- 
urally arise, why is it that this extensive tract, so 
near the great city of New York and its sister city, 
Brooklyn, remains unsubdued and untitled, and 
what means can be economically used to make this 
apparent wilderness productive and remunerative 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 193 

to the labor of man ?" Along the railroad line is a 
district containing 150,000 acres, but partially cul- 
tivated. In Queens and Suffolk Counties there 
were nearly 200,000 acres of unimproved land, as 
shown by the census of 1855. All this lay within 
two and three miles of the railroad. In leaving 
the cultivated lands about Jamaica, there is an un- 
occupied, uncultivated, unenclosed expanse, without 
tree or shrub to obstruct the view for miles. 

Numerous towns held great tracts containing 
thousands of acres, which were kept for public use 
as commons. Hempstead originally held 17,000 
acres. North Hempstead disposed of her lands at 
low prices, and was largely benefited by the influx 
of new settlers. When the railroad was opened in 
18M, it traversed an almost unbroken wilderness, 
in which scarcely a dwelling was to be seen. But 
twenty years have wrought wonderful changes in 
the condition of the lands adjoining it. 

In many places on and near the railroad, within 
about an hour's ride of New York, there is land for 
sale at moderate prices — Mr. Schnebly says at from 
ten to thirty dollars an acre, according to location. 
He refers to the crops produced by various farmers 
on land in this condemned region. Peach trees 
grow luxuriantly and bear profusely. Corn, oats, 
barley and rye are produced as largely as in the 
best regions, while the average wheat product of 
the island exceeds that of the State. The State Ag- 
ricultural Society awarded to Mr. Yan Sicklin, of 
Riverhead, the premium for the best cultivated 
farm, he having produced crops worth $3,300 at an 

9 



194 



BOW TO GET A FARM, 



expense of $1,100 for manure and labor. Another 
party, who bought land at $12.50 per acre, so culti- 
vated it as to produce one hundred bushels of oats 
to the acre, and the same season grew turnips which 
yielded an additional profit of $29 per acre. A 
tract of these neglected lands has produced twenty- 
five bushels of wheat per acre, a year or two after 
being taken up. 

These lands have been a frequent subject of dis- 
cussion at the New York Farmers' Club. As the 
parties who share in these discussions are experi- 
enced agriculturists, some of their opinions are 
quoted. Professor Nash said : 

" It has been stated and denied that the land is loam, 
and not sand or gravel. I have lately spent some days in 
examination of this soil, and find that statement correct, 
and that it is beautifully adapted to garden culture, and 
capable of producing various crops most profitable to the 
cultivator. This loam has produced and is able to produce 
$400 to the acre in strawberries. I wish the slanders that 
have been spoken against the lands of Long Island could 
be counteracted, and their value better known and made 
useful to the world. Although not as rich as prairie soil, it 
is well worthy of the attention of small farmers and men 
in search of lands for homes. Such homes can- be made 
upon the wild lands of Long Island as well, to say the least, 
as in the west." 

Dr. Peck said that these lands do not need ren- 
ovating, but merely cultivation. The whole centre 
of the island is a natural clover field. He added 
that upon just such land as that which is called bar- 
ren, fifty-four bushels of wheat had been grown, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 195 

taking the State Society's premium. One man had 
fifty acres of clover in the very midst of the scrub- 
oak barrens, as fine clover as ever grew. He gave 
the figures of a thirty-acre farm, which gave a profit 
for the year of $9,300. There were ten acres in 
cucumbers. Another farmer raised 4,000 bushels 
of potatoes, which he sold for $7,000. 

A member of the Club having asserted that " it 
was impossible for any poor man to occupy such 
land, because he could not improve it," another said 
in reply : 

" The Long Island lands were no poorer than those along 
the Camden and Amboy Railroad, which have been made 
the garden spot of New Jersey, and made so by the labor 
of poor men. He deprecated this continual attack upon 
Long Island, this constantly telling poor men not to go to 
that poverty-stricken region to starve. It was this oft- 
repeated assertion that the lands are barren which keeps 
them so; it is not because they are so, for it has been 
proved by the most incontestable evidence that these plains, 
or barrens, as they are called, can be profitably cultivated. 
He thought it would prove a great blessing to a great many 
poor men if they should go out upon the island and culti- 
vate it like a garden. It is no use to talk about capitalists 
undertaking the work of renovation, if they have got to 
buy the land and spend a hundred dollars an acre to im- 
prove it before they begin to realize a profit. Such men of 
money are much more likely to spend it in Wall street 
speculations. For the improvement of Long Island we 
must look to the laborers, the hard-working poor men, such 
as the gentleman, in his old-fogy argument, would discour- 
age from the attempt to better their condition." 

Another member related an interesting anecdote 



196 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

of one of his acquaintances, who proved, in the 
most practical manner, that a poor man could settle 
upon these so-called poor Long Island lands, and 
make a good support for his family, and gain prop- 
erty at the same time. He thought it a disgrace to 
the country and the age we live in to say that these 
lands were incapable of improvement, except by an 
expenditure of money so far beyond the reach of all 
ordinary cultivators that none would be found to 
undertake the work of improvement. 

How some of this land within a few miles of New 
York is used, and what a variety of products it is 
capable of yielding, is related in the following live- 
ly article from the Tribune for July, 1858 : 

" Long Island is to New York city just what is, or should 
be, the little inclosure picketed in at the back of every 
farrn-house — the garden-spot furnishing a great abundance 
of fruits and fresh vegetables to the residents of the man- 
sion in front. Unfortunately, the simile holds good in 
several respects, for this great garden spot is, like a great 
many kitchen gardens, run to weeds and waste for lack of 
care and cultivation. Like the garden divided off in plats, 
parterres and little nooks, it shows one of lovely flowers 
and another of weeds — a third is filled with choice fruit, 
and the next is a nest of wild vines, crabs and brambles — 
a fourth is waving corn, growing in all the luxuriance of 
the wonderful soil, while right alongside is a spot that only 
affords a scant pasture to a stray cow. Instead of being 
one great garden, unsurpassed by all the world, it is a sad 
evidence of what neglect and careless cultivation can do to 
such a spot. 

" In the course of our ramble we became satisfied that 
the soil is capable of furnishing this great city with all its 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 197 

food except, perhaps, the great staples of the west, which 
alone bear transportation. At Ravenswood we looked into 
a garden where raspberries are grown by the acre — four or 
five acres, we should say, in a plat — not for fruit, but to 
sell the plants to others, at $70 or $80 a thousand, the de- 
mand being greater than the owner could supply. Within , 
the same inclosure is an acfe or two of rhubarb, which, 
grown as a crop on several farms on Long Island, yields 
$500 an acre. 

" There are also a great number of sample vines started 
as stocks for cutting, and to show what is the quality of 
the fruit of those two new and very superior grapes, the 
Delaware and Rebecca. The cuttings are all started in 
thumb pots, in forcing-houses in the winter, and as they 
make roots, successively removed into larger and larger 
pots, until there is a mass of fibrous roots filling a gallon 
pot, which gives a rapid growth to the vine when set out, 
which buyers greatly prefer to the slower growth obtained 
from cuttings set in the open ground. The owner is profit- 
ably working land that is worth at least $1,000 an acre for 
building lots. 

" Next to his grounds we visited those of a grower of 
the new cherry currant. But, excellent as that is, he is 
not satisfied without an attempt to get a better one, and so 
he has 2,000 seedlings a year old, grown from seeds of the 
very largest of the fine ones at present grown. Of these, 
2,000 plants were grown with much labor, requiring the^ 
care and attention of the planter for three years before he 
can obtain and prove the fruit. He may be rewarded with 
one choice new seedling, and cast the other nineteen hun- 
dred and ninety-nine into the fire, or he may not get even 
that single one. It is a great labor to grow seedlings until 
one is obtained better than the original, yet some one must 
persevere in such labor, or we should never have the choice 



198 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

fruits we now enjoy — such as Hovey's, Hooker's, Long- 
worth's, McAvoy's, Peabody's, Burr's, Wilson's, and other 
new strawberries; Brinkle's raspberry, Houghton's goose- 
berry, Lawton's blackberry, and an almost endless list of 
apples, pears, plums, cherries, and other choice fruits and 
* plants, that somebody has had the patience and perse- 
verance to grow from the seed of old sorts. 

''Jumping from Ravenswood — that village of beautiful 
residences on the bank of the East River, opposite the Isle 
of Penitence — to East Brooklyn, we shall see as we ride 
out Division avenue, alias Broadway, a considerable num- 
ber of small gardens and cultivated spots ; but most of the 
land lies waste and useless to the thousands of starving la- 
borers that throng the streets in pursuit of employment. 
Not that they^are unwilling to work, or the owners of the 
land unwilling that it should be cultivated, but because the 
absurd practice prevails of letting cows, horses, hogs,* goats, 
geese, ducks and fowls run at large, pirating their living 
upon the unfenced lands, and frequently breaking into in- 
closures. Thus no one can plant a little patch of garden 
vegetables, which in some cases would save the family from 
begging or being a public charge. And it is almost an 
annual charge to fence in a lot, since the material will be 
stolen for winter fuel, unless closely watched. And so a 
wide breadth of rich soil, extending as far out as the land 
has been cursed by city lot surveyors, is a worthless waste, 
with only here and there a rich green spot, to show us it is 
not by nature a barren. 

"One of these green spots we notice on our left hand, 
some three miles from Peck Slip Ferry, is a pear nursery, 
where more than ten thousand trees were in bloom last 
spring. The most of the trees are grafted upon quince 
stocks, and a,re growing vigorously in a clayey loam soil, 
deeply prepared and highly manured. The trees grown 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 190 

for fruiting are some of them trained to branch three to 
five stems from the ground, and others one stem, with 
branches only a few inches from the surface, and top of 
pyramidal shape a few feet high. Between all these trees 
plants of Hovey's seedling strawberries are set, and one 
spot of wonderfully small dimensions, for such a yield, was 
pointed out, from which forty quarts were picked one even- 
ing, which sold readily for forty cents a quart. We should 
say* an acre at the same rate would produce a thousand 
dollars. 

" Between the rows of nursery trees one or more rows of 
cabbages are grown, by which a clean and continual culti- 
vation is insured to the trees, and a summer crop sufficient 
to pay for all the labor, leaving the money for trees sold as 
profit — less the first cost. All of the quince stocks, and 
many of the pears ready grafted in them, are imported from 
France. One bill of freight covered 20,000 trees. Who 
buys all the trees annually imported, or grafted, and culti- 
vated here, we cannot say ; but the proprietor assured us 
that he had constantly upon his book orders ahead of his 
ability to fill, not being willing to send out any but well- 
rooted trees. 

" Now, all this production from a waste spot has come 
without premeditation ; the proprietor, while engaged in 
other business, built a house here for his family residence, 
and could not bear to see all around him a desert of waste ; 
and so he began, first for his own use, to plant pear-trees, 
and finding his neighbors wanted them, he enlarged his 
production, until from an amateur he has become a nursery- 
man, and has made an oasis in the middle of the desert of 
unoccupied, unfenced city lots, where whole farms have 
been turned out to common grazing-ground for wandering 
cows. 

" By his side, a man has fenced in with wire several of 



200 

these vacant lots, and made a market garden, which is more 
profitable than twenty times its area of wheat and corn in 
Illinois. We were pointed to one portion of it that had 
already yielded two crops this season, worth about $700 an 
acre, and is now set with celery that will produce four or 
five hundred more. True, it costs labor and manure, and 
requires skill beyond that requisite to grow potatoes or 
pumpkins, but it pays a large profit upon all outlays, and 
leaves a handsome surplus to reward the man of intellect 
who does or directs the work. 

" A little further on we stopped a few minutes to look at 
the work of two remarkably skillful English gardeners, 
father and son, enthusiastic ( propagators and producers of 
new plants and rare flowers. Among the curious things in 
the garden are a thousand thrifty plants of the Lawton 
blackberry, all propagated from one plant stem last spring, 
by some secret of their own, which enables them to multi- 
ply it almost indefinitely. But the most curious of all 
things about this garden, where we see everything growing 
so luxuriantly, is the fact that it is done without manure. 
They were too poor to buy it, and they cannot afford to 
grow weeds to make compost, and as the surface had been 
exhausted by long cropping it in the old style of farming, 
what were they to do? Go on the same old course of put- 
ting nothing on, and taking everything off that the thin 
surface-soil would produce ? No, they could not live by 
that, and as they would not buy and cart on fertility, they 
dug for it. They found it two or three feet below the sur- 
face, where they put the loose stones, enabling the water to 
drain off, and roots to run down. Now, when a plant needs 
fertilizing, a loosening of the surface with a fork lets in the 
air, and the plant grows again with renewed vigor. De- 
voted industry and spade labor produce the results we see. 
" Next we come to East New York, where waste lots lie 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 201 

all around, with only here and there a house upon a plain 
miles in extent. Now, getting beyond these we come to 
fields of most wonderfully rich and rank green Indian corn, 
great hay-fields, and smaller ones of rye and wheat stubble, 
with here and there men digging potatoes. There are but 
few market gardens or fruit farms, though every one has 
apple and pear trees for his own use. As a general thing, 
going on towards Jamaica, farming appears to be done now 
much as it was in the days of the fathers and grandfathers 
of the present occupants. Here is an exception. Captain 
Briggs, who for thirty years followed the sea, and has since 
been engaged in commerce, and even now, at sixty-five 
years old, goes every day to the city to attend to business, 
has still found time to plant an orchard covering twenty- 
five acres, in which he has sixteen hundred pear-trees, now 
six to eight years old, and very thrifty, and all in bearing 
condition. A good many are in fruit this year, although it 
is a season of general failure, and all show a vigor of 
growth that proves this fact, that although a man may be 
bred upon the sea, or has been fifty years of his life en- 
gaged in commercial pursuits, it does not disqualify him 
from cultivating the earth with success if he is a man of 
sense, who never does a thing without knowing why it 
should be done. 

" For instance, he thought when about to plant his apple- 
trees, that they were strong-rooted trees, with heavy tops, 
and should be planted on the northeast side of the orchard 
to break the prevailing winds from the slower-growing and 
weaker pear-trees. In looking about, however, he found 
that apple-trees, as they are usually planted out, are of slow 
growth, sometimes dying, and sometimes being blown over 
by the winds that sweep up this gently inclined plain from 
the broad Atlantic. So he inquired, why ? He soon found 
why. He saw trees stuck down into holes that were so 

9* 



202 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

small that the few roots not trimmed off, had to be doubled 
and coiled around the clump root, and trod and jammed 
into their narrow quarters, and there the tree was expected 
to grow. 

" ' How can it ?' said the old sailor. ' These people 
never reason — I'll have no such work on my farm.' 

" It was difficult to get men to work differently, but he 
could work himself, with his own strong hands. So he had 
holes dug eight feet broad and two feet deep, and threw 
back a foot of the top soil in the bottom of the hole, well 
mixed with compost manure, all as finely pulverized as a 
garden bed. Then he went to the nursery and bought 
large trees — 'too large to do well,' the nurseryman said, 
'he had better take smaller ones.' No, he wanted trees, 
not whip-stalks. And these trees he wanted with roots, and 
by determined perseverance he got them with roots. ' Great 
sprawling things,' the man said who dug them, 'that never 
could be set out, because nobody was a going to dig holes 
big enough for that' He was mistaken, for somebody did 
dig holes big enough, and somebody got down upon some- 
body's hands and knees, and ' with fingers weary and worn' 
straightened out every little fibrous root, and bedded it 
nicely in the soft earth, and not a tree failed to grow at 
once ; and now, who ever saw such handsome, large, bear- 
ing trees at eight years old ? Every tree in the orchard 
stands up as straight as the spars of the owner's ship. 

" At Baiseley's Pond we saw men and teams at work 
digging out the deep bed of muck that for ages has been 
accumulating, and we said to the man who was digging his 
potatoes — small potatoes and few in a hill — within a few 
rods of great piles of this muck, which the contractor had 
had to buy the privilege of placing on dry land, ' Your 
crop would be better if you had a good lot of that muck, 
well rotted and mixed with your soil.' 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 203 

" ' Humph — so I have heard before.' 

" And that was his answer to our kindly-meant sugges- 
tion ; and he bent again over his profitless toil, disinclined 
to talk of what ' he had heard before.' Some of this muck, 
compressed like brick while moist, and then dried, burns 
like cannel coal, leaving an ash highly charged "with pot- 
ash. As we walked over the immense pile, extending in a 
broad belt around the pond, we picked up tuft after tuft as 
large as a man's hat, so light that we played football with 
them. They were made up of a knitted mass of fibrous 
roots, which would burn like dry wood twigs, and afford an 
equal per cent, of potash. Yet, while they lie here and de- 
cay and waste away, the owners of the poor, sandy soil ad- 
joining will send to Vermont or Western New York for 
leached ashes, for these they have proved are good for the 
land, while the value of the muck they have only 4 heard 
tell of before.' They have also heard that it * is pizen to 
the land,' and therefore will not listen and learn how to use 
it and make it most valuable. 

" Turning away from this pile of wasted wealth, we 
drove a mile or two across the plain to visit ' a successful 
market-truck farmer ;' not a ' garden-trucker,' but one who 
grows field crops for market. To-day he was digging po- 
tatoes — ' a very fair crop of Mercers, about 150 bushels per 
acre.' The tops were still very green, and the farmer 
thought the tubers would have increased about a quarter, if 
left to ripen, but then they would not bring as much. The 
price to-day is $3.25 a barrel. The vines are pulled and 
tubers shaken off between two rows, and the remainder 
forked out with a five-pronged, flat-tined fork. Then 
two men pass along picking all the marketable tubers into 
a basket that holds about three pecks — three being counted 
to a barrel — saving, as they go along, all the best in a 
smaller basket, to top off with — the best, of course, always 



204 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

on top. The small potatoes left on the ground are after- 
wards picked for pig feed, yet sometimes they are sold to 
the bakers to piece out the superfine flour, and make it 
carry more water, so as to answer the law that requires 
bread to be sold by weight. The baskets being filled are 
loaded upon a wagon that carries forty, with feed and food 
for a man with two horses, who starts in time to reach the 
market some time in the night, where he sells his load 
early the next morning, and returns in time to rest and 
load up again. This potato ground is sown as soon as 
cleared of the crop, to wheat and seeded to clover." 

From this copious summary of the condition and 
capabilities of the neglected lands of Long Island, 
new wonder will be excited at the fact of any large 
body of them continuing to be unoccupied. The 
term " barrens" should now become obsolete — they 
never have been such. The consumer is at their 
very door, taking not only all they now produce, 
but ready to devour all that their uncultivated acres 
could be made to yield. It would be wise for the 
producer to plant himself beside this consumer. 
Every man now looking for a farm should go and 
examine them. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 205 



CHAPTER IX. 

The neglected Lands of Delaware — Repeopling tlie Slave Re- 
gion — Condition, Soil, and Products — Crops and Lumber — 
Farms for Sale, and Prices — Railroads — Maryland Farms. 

The State of Delaware is rapidly coming before 
the public in a new and regenerated attitude. The 
immemorial blight of slavery is fast disappearing. 
A wholesale Northern emigration is coming in to 
enlighten and control the remaining heresies which, 
for a generation at least, must linger among those 
who were born and educated to believe in them. 
About eighteen months ago, an association of prom- 
inent citizens was formed, with no view to individual 
profit, but having for its sole object the circulation 
of knowledge touching the cheap and fertile lands 
of the State, so that Northern settlers might be 
drawn thither, thus at once crushing out at the bal- 
lot-box the pro-slavery element which had ruled and 
blasted the region. Many such have become pur- 
chasers in consequence of this information, and 
the number is constantly increasing. 

As Delaware presents great attractions for those 
who desire a farm, much pains has been taken to 
obtain a full insight into the condition and prices of 
land, and of its facilities for reaching market. A 
leading object of the association referred to was the 



206 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

improvement of the State by introducing farmers, 
artisans, manufacturers, and tradesmen, from other 
localities. A special object was to develop the agri- 
cultural resources of the State, particularly the 
Central and Southern portions, by encouraging the 
settlement of truckers, who would purchase and 
divide the large tracts into small truck farms, pro- 
ducing fruit and vegetables for the Philadelphia 
and New York markets. This course would not 
only bring the lands into a higher state of cultiva- 
tion, but would invite a thriving and enterprising 
population, greatly adding to the productive wealth 
of the State, purifying its political atmosphere, and 
enhancing the value of property. 

For the securing of these ends, it was necessary 
to disabuse the North in regard to the true senti- 
ment of the State, and to assure all who thought of 
settling there, that they would be welcomed by a 
large and intelligent portion of the population, from 
whatever section of the country they might come, 
and whatever their political views, if loyal to the 
Government, and disposed to contribute to the de- 
velopment of the resources of the State. The doc- 
uments thus put forth for general information have 
been freely used in this chapter. 

Such an enterprise appeals strongly to Northern 
self-interest. It cannot be doubted that, in thus de- 
veloping Delaware and adjoining sections of the 
peninsula, with other portions of the South, the 
trading interests of the North will be largely ben- 
efited. By furnishing increased facilities to settlers, 
capitalists of all classes may make profitable invest 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 207 

ments in new village locations, in lots, and in man- 
ufacturing and other establishments, which would 
greatly appreciate in value with the growth of the 
place. Destined, as Delaware is, to be the great 
thoroughfare to Eastern Virginia and the further 
South, when a general tide of emigration shall set 
in that direction after the war, investments wisely 
made in that State must be highly remunerative. 
In the past, many properties have doubled in value 
within a few years. 

After Delaware has been thus unionized and 
emancipated, the idea was to present the same 
potent example of the superiority of free-labor en- 
terprise to other portions of the South. Maryland 
was to come next, then her neighbors. It is averred, 
as the most probable hypothesis, that at the close 
of the rebellion, a large standing army must be 
maintained for years, or the sentiment of union and 
liberty must be rapidly created in the South by an 
infusion of Northern emigration. The blood of the 
two sections must be made to mingle — the Yankee 
taking his seat beside the Southron, there teaching 
him a new lesson of life, how to work or whittle — 
until he is educated to the right sentiment. Such 
infusion must be an overflowing one. But the signs 
of the times indicate that such will be its character. 

In Delaware, slavery would still be, as it always 
has been, a fatal objection to settlement there. The 
Milford News stated, in 1858, that "in Newcastle, 
the most northerly county in Delaware, where there 
are scarcely any slaves, improved lands are worth 
over $50 per acre, while in Sussex, where the bulk 



208 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

of the slaves of the State are held, lands are worth 
only from $7 to $8 per acre." The same paper says, 
that three years previous, " A band of 300 Swiss 
emigrants arrived in New York with all their ar- 
rangements made to settle in Delaware. They were 
farmers, with money to buy land ; and hearing that 
land was cheap in Delaware — a State settled by 
their fathers — they concluded to settle there ; but 
finding, on their arrival, that Delaware was a slave 
State, they passed us by, settled in Ohio, and helped 
to augment the wealth of that young giant of the 
Union." The sagacious editor declared, eight years 
ago, that an act of emancipation would at once in- 
crease the value of real estate in Delaware five 
millions of dollars. But emancipation is now at her 
very door — rebellion has destroyed the institution, 
and the few slaves are rapidly disappearing. 
Northern immigration will soon secure an entire 
eradication of this only remaining drawback to the 
prosperity of the State. Delaware may therefore 
be considered a free State, running with Maryland 
a race for freedom. 

The Puritan element having never predominated 
in Delaware, churches and schools are scarcer than 
in New England. Slavery has cast its usual blight 
on the religion and education of her people. Yet 
these indispensable elements of a high civilization 
are not wholly absent. They exist in larger extent 
than in most places where land is equally cheap. 
They are incomparably better developed than in the 
new States and Territories of the extreme West. 
There are churches of different denominations in 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 209 

the principal villages, and a large number within 
convenient distances in the country. Schools exist 
in equal number; while the villages and towns con- 
tain others of a better class, and sometimes acad- 
emies. The great need is an infusion of Northern 
religious and educational elements. 

A farmer can do but little active work without 
health. The country is, in general, pre-eminently 
healthy, the climate being mild and regular. It is 
recommended to all who are troubled with pul- 
monary or bronchial diseases incident to bleak and 
changeable Northern latitudes. Preachers, who had 
been compelled by these affections to abandon the 
pulpit, have been enabled to resume it after a few 
months' residence in Delaware. It has also advan- 
tages, in point of healthfulness, over more newly 
settled regions, in being less subject to chills and 
fever. Good soft water abounds, at from ten to 
twenty feet. All fruits and vegetables can be 
raised for very early market. A week or two at 
the beginning of a season, is sometimes worth 
thousands to the truckman. Ploughing can gen- 
erally be done all through the winter. 

There is almost every variety of soil, most of 
which may be said to be the natural home of the 
peach and sweet potato. Major Anthony Reybold 
has netted $20,000 in one season from peaches. 
Mr. George Parrish, from 9,000 trees, occupying 
ninety acres, in 1863, netted $10,000. The tree 
is here free from the blights that affect it in the 
North, thus it lives and thrives for many years. 
Sweet potatoes produce enormously, as much as 



210 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

200 to 300 bushels per acre. Grapes, melons, and ber- 
ries of all kinds, produce largely. In the wild black- 
berry trade alone, almost incredible quantities are 
gathered by women and children, and sent to market. 
Before the construction of the Delaware Railroad, 
thousands of acres in the central and southern por- 
tions of the State were shut in from market. Hence 
there are vast quantities of virgin land, more or less 
wooded, whose timber is to be felled, and whose soil 
developed by the hand of industry. Much timber is 
still standing along and near the railroad- A profit- 
able business is done in getting out ship timber, while 
the railroad is constantly requiring wood for fuel 
and ties for the track. Distant roads are buying 
ties almost without limit. Numerous tracts of such 
timber land are for sale. As an illustration of their 
general character, I copy a single advertisement of 
a farm of nearly 300 acres, which, finding no pur- 
chaser at $25 per acre, was withdrawn from sale : 

" With the exception of 50 acres cleared, it is all cov- 
ered with the heaviest timber to be found Anywhere in the 
State, including heart and yellow Pine, Cypress, Beech, 
Chestnut, Gum, Poplar, &c, with some scattering White 
Oak. Most of the large pine timber is perfectly straight, 
and they run up 60 to 110 feet before the first limb is 
reached. A great many of them will make from 4,000 to 
5,000 feet of lumber each. Many of the cypress trees are 
from four to six feet in diameter three feet above the 
ground, and will yield from 5,000 to 8,000 shingles each. 
The soil of the tract is a deep, black, yellow muck, from 
three to five feet in depth, thoroughly drained by county 
ditches, and when cleared will yield from 50 to 100 bush- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 211 

els of shelled corn per acre, and other crops in proportion. 
On the cleared part there is a small dwelling and outbuild- 
ings, and some few fruit trees of various kinds. A good 
opening for a steam mill." 

Thirty such announcements might be quoted, the 
terms of payment being in all cases extremely ac- 
commodating to the buyer. With reference to the 
timbered land, it may be added that there are nu- 
merous mill seats, with flour and saw-mills in opera- 
tion, and much unused water-power. Many of the 
latter are for sale at reasonable prices. As fuel is 
abundant and cheap, so steam power may be and is 
used to advantage. 

The lumber question will be one of interest to 
many readers. It ranks among the most extensive 
interests in the country. "While in the Free States 
the forests have been melting away before the axe of 
the freeman, those in the Slave States have remain- 
ed comparatively undisturbed. Delaware abounds 
with tracts of invaluable forests of hard and soft 
woods, which wait only for the hand of Northern 
enterprise to lay them low. The lumber could be 
worked up in many profitable ways. The neighbor- 
ing market of Philadelphia would consume immense 
quantities. With an influx of population there will 
be an increased demand for saw-mills. In new vil- 
lage sites already selected, two or three are needed 
now. There will also be a demand for planing-mills 
and sash factories. Turning establishments will 
pay, as black gum, the best material for carriage 
hubs, is very abundant. They now leave these 
woods in rough blocks, to be manufactured else- 



212 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

where, instead of being more cheaply turned on the 
Bpot where they grew. Spokes and axe-helves could 
be produced at the lowest cost. Now, Connecticut 
comes to these Delaware woods and takes away 
quantities of hickory logs, converts them into spokes 
and axe-handles, and then brings them back among 
the very people where the timber grew, and where 
they could be more cheaply turned. It is the same 
with manufactories of agricultural implements, with 
tanneries and other indispensable employments. 
But one of the greatest wants is a development of 
the vast deposits of muck which are found in many 
places. These masses of decayed fertilizers are de- 
posited in basins along the creeks, many feet in 
depth. But so far they have shared the general 
neglect. It will be the task, as well as the remune- 
ration, of enterprising settlers, to seize and appro- 
priate these abounding deposits of manure. 

Until within a very few years, Delaware has been 
a comparatively sealed book. It had but one or 
two railroads. There was no thorough view of the 
country to be had — no ready ingress, no ready 
egress. Moreover, it was blasted by dominion of the 
slave power, and few desired to know what it really 
was, because none were willing to remove into a' 
slave region. Land was consequently unsalable ; 
but this condition of things has undergone a mighty 
change. Kailroads have been built, which open up 
to public observation a region heretofore of difficult 
access to travellers, slavery is certain to be speedily 
wiped out, and immigrants are pouring in. Even 
yet the price of land is very low, ranging from ten 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 213 

to forty dollars per acre. Farms with house and 
outbuildings, fences and fruit trees, within three or 
four miles of a railroad station, of fair quality and 
in fair condition, may be obtained for from twenty 
to thirty dollars per acre. The purchaser can take 
as much or as little land as he wants. Kent and 
Sussex counties contain much of this description. 

After soil and price have been considered, the vi- 
cinity to market is to be looked at. Here it is near 
and accessible daily by railroad. Products, such as 
in the West would perish for want of buyers, here 
find ready sale at high prices. Philadelphia, New 
York and Boston, are all reached in a few hours. 
New lines of railroads and steamboats leading direct 
to New York, are in progress, and when opened 
will enlarge the present outlets for all kinds of 
produce. At certain points along the Delaware 
Railroad there are large establishments for canning 
peaches, in which hundreds of hands are employed. 
That portion of the crop which goes to market from 
the tree, takes the daily train to New York in the 
afternoon, and reaches that city by daylight the 
next morning. 

In some sections there has already been a marked 
change in the value of real estate, in consequence of 
the opening of new railroads, and of the public at- 
tention having been directed to these lands. About 
Middletown, in New Castle county, land which 
some years ago was thrown out into commons as 
worthless, cannot be obtained now for less than one 
to two hundred dollars per acre. Farms in Kent 
county, now obtainable at from $15 to $40, must 



214 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

within a few years command $75 to $100 per acre. 
Such are some of the 'inducements to a settlement 
in Delaware. If the reader has by this time learned 
how to get a farm, it is very certain that here he 
can find one. Population is scarce, land is abun- 
dant, and consequently cheap. There are hundreds 
of owners who, insensible of the advantages they 
possess, are overstocked with land, and desirous of 
selling. 

The opening of railroads here, as elsewhere, at- 
tracted enterprising men from abroad. Among the 
most active of these is Mr. Alfred T. Johnston, of 
Milford, in Sussex county, on the Junction and 
Breakwater Railroad, six miles from Delaware Bay, 
a hundred from Philadelphia by rail, and at the 
head of navigation on the Mispillion river. Here 
the fisheries are very productive, and shipbuilding 
is extensively carried on. In population Milford 
ranks next to Wilmington, the second town in the 
State. Mr. Johnston came from Pennsylvania and 
settled, five years ago, in Milford. Being shrewd 
and enterprising, he soon discovered the wants of 
the region, and the numerous openings for settle- 
ment that it presented. He made himself thorough- 
ly acquainted with the land and with those owners 
who desired to sell, then devoted himself to intro- 
ducing settlers by making the outside world ac- 
quainted with the capabilities of Delaware lands. 
These were such as to attract hundreds from all 
parts of the Union. He has introduced so large a 
population as to change majorities at the polls. In 
the summer of 1864 I went among some of the set- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 215 

tiers thus introduced. Some are mechanics, but 
most of them are farmers. I saw their improve- 
ments, their crops, and questioned them as to their 
prospects. As most were from a colder climate, 
they spoke strongly in favor of this. I found none 
of these recent comers desirous of selling and re- 
moving. On the contrary, they were writing let- 
ters to former neighbors to invite them to settle be- 
side them. The cheap lands they had bought a few 
years ago had in all cases risen in value, some 
double, some treble. 

It did not appear that any of these settlers were 
mere speculators — they came to cultivate the soil. 
But while doing so, it rose enormously in value. A 
farmer from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, purchased 
in 1858 a tract of 475 acres, at $12.50 per acre, 
within two miles of Milford. It had good buildings 
and fences, and much of it was cleared. He made 
payment in a house in Philadelphia, with a mort- 
gage on the farm for the remainder. He has sold 
off three farms containing 355 acres, in the three, 
for $12,600, and reserved, during a period of fifteen 
years, the fruit from 3,000 peach trees he had 
planted, besides having a farm of 120 acres, now 
worth $6,000. The peach crop thus reserved is 
worth $3,000 per annum. Other instances of rapid 
increase of values were pointed out, some of them 
quite as remarkable. 

Mr. Johnston showed me a long list of properties 
which he controlled, and was offering to settlers. 
Many of these were large enough to cut up into half 
a dozen farms. Others would divide handsomely 



216 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

into two or three, while some were already of the 
proper size, and others contained only fifteen acres. 
The aspirations of every possible class of buyers 
could here be gratified, from the man with a full 
purse down to him whose whole capital was only a 
few hundred dollars. Most of these properties were 
astonishingly cheap, the price, in many cases, being 
less than the cost of the improvements. All could 
be had by paying down a fourth, a third, or half 
the purchase money, with, in most cases, a long 
term of years for the remainder. Some had been 
sold without any money being required, a credit 
having been given for the whole. 

For men not strictly farmers, or for -farmers with 
a talent for other business or trade, there were on 
some of these very advantageous openings for op- 
erating in lumber. The timber standing on much 
of this land could be cut and marketed at a profit 
of double the first cost of the land, leaving the lat- 
ter all clear, with a profit besides. This operation 
has been repeatedly performed, as much of this fine 
timber stands within a few miles of schooner navi- 
gation, and with saw-mills near at hand. In short, 
for those looking for a new location, there are few 
regions deserving more attention than the hitherto 
neglected woods and farms of Delaware. 

The lands on which Mr. Johnston is thus intro- 
ducing settlers, are located principally in Sussex 
county. It is here the peach tree flourishes in such 
profitable luxuriance. The product of the county 
was very large in 1863, but for 1864, it was esti- 
mated at 500,000 baskets. This increase is owing 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 217 

to the young orchards, planted by new settlers, 
coming into bearing. Mr. Johnston's estimate is, 
that in five years from this time, Sussex county will 
send millions of baskets to market. The strawberry 
culture is just beginning on a large scale. But in 
the common wild blackberry trade, the amount has 
been so great as to be a most important item in the 
cash account of every railroad in the State. Sussex 
county has poured these things into Philadelphia 
by tens of thousands of bucketfuls, the railroads 
having opened a market for what formerly perished 
in the fields. At every railroad station I saw the 
platform covered with hundreds of buckets of these 
berries, sometimes a thousand in one place, waiting 
for the train, while men, women, and children, were 
constantly bringing in additions to the huge supply. 
There were buyers from the city who were taking 
all that came, paying fifty cents per bucket of about 
eight quarts. In less than twenty-four hours, the 
great bulk of this supply would be eaten up by the 
people of Philadelphia. 

It will be a subject of wonder with many as to 
what becomes of this vast supply of light and ex- 
tremely perishable fruit. The history of a single 
establishment will go far to remove it. A house in 
Philadelphia, Messrs. Aldrich and Yerkes, has been 
several, years engaged in the business of canning 
and preserving fruit. This firm occupies three, 
large five-story warehouses in Letitia street, in which 
they manufacture pickles, jellies, marmalade, cham- 
paign cider, and put up great quantities of tomatoes, 
strawberries, and blackberries, in cans. These va- 

10 



21S 

rious preserves are sold all over the Union, pen- 
etrating even to the gold mines of Pike's Peak," and 
consumed in every ship that sails the ocean. The 
demand increases as their productions become better 
known. They contract for whole orchards of peaches, 
and last year used 26,000 baskets. Of common 
wild blackberries they consumed immense quanti- 
ties : of pine apples 3,000 dozen cans were pre- 
served ; of raspberries and currants they consumed 
wagon loads. In addition to these items, they put 
up 60,000 jars of honey, and 36,000 bottles of 
champaign. Pears and good plums they have 
never been able to procure in sufficient quantity. 
This year, lS6-t, they will want some 40,000 baskets 
of peaches, and fifty acres of pickles. They employ 
400 hands, principally women, and can put np 
nearly 20,000 cans daily. Their pickle tank holds 
25 barrels, which are greened in 24 hours, and re- 
placed by as many more. In 1863, this establish- 
ment consumed $30,000 worth of sugar. 

Here is a single manufactory which buys or- 
chards, cucumber patches, strawberries, raspberries, 
blackberries, tomatoes, &c, by the acre. But it is 
only one among many others doing quite as large a 
business. Every city contains several snch, and 
they are springing up in all the smaller towns. 
Even in the present infancy of the business, they 
exercise a marked influence in preventing" a dis- 
couraging glut of the general market. The public, 
having had a taste of canned fruits and vegetables, 
call for increased quantities. The market for these 
perishable productions, instead of being limited to 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 219 

a few weeks, is made to extend over the whole year. 
Formerly, a third of the peach crop did not pay for 
taking to market, and fine fruits of other kinds were 
frequently given away on reaching the city, the 
glut being so complete that no buyers were to be 
found. The canning and preserving establishments 
are now so numerous as to check these gluts and 
prevent these losses. From this brief reference to 
them, the reader will learn something as to what 
becomes of the enormous amount of the smaller 
fruits transported over the railroads, as well as of 
the propriety of going to work at producing them. 

Leaving Delaware for Maryland, a very similar 
condition of things is found to exist. The quantity 
of land for sale is enormous. The firm of Messrs. 
R. W. Templeman & Co., of Baltimore, control 
more than four hundred farms, to which they are 
inviting the attention of settlers. Some of these 
contain thousands of acres in a single tract, and 
could be advantageously divided into smaller farms. 
Others contain only live to seven acres. Every 
possible variety of property is embraced in the ex- 
tensive catalogue which these gentlemen control, 
while the locations are as various as the different 
tracts. Many are within easy reach of Baltimore, 
a city whose daily wants require the products of a 
large extent of country. In that market, all that 
the farmer can produce, the fruits and vegetables 
especially, command highly remunerative prices. 
Around that city there are farms having fifty acres 
set with strawberries alone. Some of the first 
pickings are distributed among northern cities as 



220 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

far as Boston and Portland, but the great bulk of 
the crop is consumed in Baltimore and Washington. 
Whoever should* 1 be searching for a location in this 
region will save himself labor, time, and money, by 
first consulting the gentlemen referred to. They are 
well acquainted with all these lands, and have been 
kind enough to furnish me with many facts in rela- 
tion to them. They have introduced multitudes of 
settlers from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
the New England States. 

The buyer of a farm in Maryland will find no 
difficulty in arranging favorable terms of payment 
with the seller. Hundreds of owners are anxious 
to dispose of their properties. The conditions are 
as accommodating as in Delaware ; for where the 
competition to sell is so keen, the buyer is very sure 
to have his own way. I know of farms belonging 
to a non-resident, who is vainly offering them to 
Northern men on almost any terms — either to buy, 
to occupy on shares, or at a nominal rent with priv- 
ilege of purchasing, or giving them, by some other 
arrangement, the use of the owner's capital. Many 
settlers from New Jersey have located in the vicinity 
of Baltimore, where they are successfully pursuing 
their former trucking business, feeding both Balti- 
more and Washington, and doing remarkably well. 

By examining the map of Maryland, the reader 
will perceive that the Chesapeake Bay nearly di- 
vides the State into two separate parts, known re- 
spectively as the Eastern and Western shore. 
Beginning at the south end of the Eastern shore, 
he will find the lands mostly sandy and of sandy 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 221 

loam, up to the line of Talbot county. They are 
adapted to growing corn, melons, sweet potatoes, 
and such fruits as peaches, strawberries, &c, and 
are generally quite level. Where unimproved, they 
are valued at $10 per acre; where improved, at 
from $20 to $50. 

Continuing north, on the same shore, the lands 
are generally of a red, stiff soil, level or slightly 
rolling, and are underlaid with beds of marl. They 
produce large crops of wheat, corn, fruits, and roots. 
These lands, unimproved, along the broad waters, 
are valued at from $30 to $40 per acre ; if im- 
proved, at from $60 to $80. Further inland, the 
prices are one-half less. The country along the 
whole of this shore is indented with numerous broad 
and deep inlets, furnishing the inhabitants with vast 
supplies of the finest fish and oysters, crabs, terra- 
pins, and the famous canvas-back and other varieties 
of ducks. Near the larger towns, and in many 
other localities, will be found a very superior so- 
ciety. Access to the cities is had by a railroad 
partly completed, and by steamboats traversing the 
Chesapeake Bay. 

The Western shore will be found, from its most 
southern point north to the line of Anne Arundel 
and Prince George county, to be of sandy and sandy 
loam soil, and in all respects like the first part of the 
Eastern shore described above, except that the land 
is more undulating, and produces a light variety of 
tobacco in large quantities. The value per acre is 
about the same. 

Going North, on the same shore, we reach the 



222 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

very productive lands of "The Kidge," in Anne 
Arundel county, and "The Forest," of Prince 
George county, extending to within forty miles of 
Baltimore. These lands yield large crops of wheat, 
corn, tobacco, and roots, are of sandy loam with 
clay subsoil, are mostly improved, and are valued at 
$40 to $100 per acre. Continuing North, the lands 
are of light sanely soil up to the vicinity of Balti- 
more. When improved, they produce fine crops of 
early small fruits, melons, peaches, and corn, and 
are valued, where accessible by railroad, at about 
$20 to $30 per acre ; if not improved, at $12 to 
$15. The foregoing portions of the State have 
heretofore been worked exclusively by slave labor, 
hence the farms will not be found as neat or well 
cultivated as those in other portions of the State. 
The inhabitants have access to the cities by steam- 
boat and river craft, the latter furnishing cheap 
transportation of freight. 

From Baltimore, going north and west, to the 
Alleghanies, and northeast, the lands are high and 
rolling. The valleys are of limestone, the hills of 
gray rock, blue slate, and red soil, generally. On 
the valley lands large crops of wheat and corn are 
produced, with many cattle. Lime is relied on 
as the great fertilizer. These lands vary in price 
with their accessibility. Generally, when distant 
from the cities, the improved valley lands are val- 
ued at from $30 to $80 per acre — the hill lands at 
about a third less. This region abounds in turn- 
pikes and railroads. Near the large towns, the so- 
ciety is good, and distant therefrom, the people are 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 223 

a thrifty, hard-working class. Here white labor 
preponderates. 

From the base of the Alleghanies, going west, 
the lands are in many places almost entirely unset- 
tled, and west of the dividing ridge are valued for 
the large and numerous deposits of the finest bitu- 
minous coal, and of hematite and other varieties of 
iron ore. The table or glade lands of these moun- 
tains produce the finest wheat and potatoes, but are 
too high above tide water for the certain production 
of corn. Where the mineral region is approached 
by railroad, the lands are very highly valued ; but 
the table lands can be bought at from $2 to $5 per 
acre, and offer to a race of hardy settlers very at- 
tractive inducements. In this region the winters 
are long, and sometimes very severe. East of the 
Alleghanies, down to the latitude of Baltimore, they 
are shorter and milder. In many parts of the East- 
ern and Western shore, cattle are not housed except 
for a very short time. 

Northern farmers are astonished at hearing of the 
low prices at which these Delaware and Maryland 
farms can be purchased. Compared with rates es- 
tablished throughout the North, they find it difficult 
to understand why prices should be so high here 
and so low there. They cannot believe that land in 
a long populated region, offered so cheaply, can be 
of any value. If it were, they think it would be 
quickly occupied by others. The vast quantity for sale 
is an additional amazement. Yet those who go and 
see for themselves, discover that they have been mis- 
taken, while many of them purchase and remove to it. 



224 



HOW TO GET A FARM, 



A friend has furnished me with an illustration as 
to these lands. In the autumn of 1854 he had oc- 
casion to visit a gentleman named Seely, living 
about two miles from Perryville, on the Susque- 
hanna, in Maryland. He there owned and occupied 
a farm of 200 acres, on which was a stone house 
standing on a knoll some distance from the main 
road, and approached by a broad and handsome 
carriage way. In conversation with Mr. Seely, he 
stated that he formerly resided in Philadelphia, 
where he had been engaged in business. He had 
bought the land five years previously for $15 per 
acre, or $3,000 for the whole farm. 

The buildings, consisting of house, barn, cow- 
house, wagon-house, &c, were in tolerably good 
condition at the time of purchase, but the fencing 
w T as poor, and the soil almost entirely exhausted by 
slave labor. The former owner was the possessor 
of thirty slaves, of various ages and conditions, 
whose labor had been employed in the cultivation 
of this farm ; but both they and their master h ad- 
become literally starved out for want of proper 
management. When the owner sold, he took his 
slaves and purchase money with him, to seek an- 
other locality, there to repeat the same exhausting 
operation. 

At the time of my friend's visit, the whole ap- 
pearance of the farm had undergone a great and 
favorable change. Everywhere the fences were in 
good order, the land had been resuscitated by care- 
ful cultivation, and the crops of all kinds were 
abundant. Mr. Seely stated that his wheat crop 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 



225 



alone had that year netted him more than $600. 
He employed two men the year round, and found 
their help to be all that was requisite for the proper 
care of that portion of the farm which was under 
tillage, except during harvest and haying, when he 
lent a hand himself. A German servant woman as- 
sisted his wife in household duties, and these three 
hired persons were all the help needed to conduct 
the farm properly. 

My friend said to him, " Mr. Seely, what do you 
consider this farm worth at the present time V 

He replied, " I have refused $10,000 for it, but I 
have no disposition to sell. I find farming to be 
both a pleasant and a profitable employment, I 
am making money slowly, but surely. Philadel- 
phia and Baltimore afford me a ready market, at 
good prices, for every thing I can raise, and as I 
am near a railroad, my transportation is cheap, 
quick, and easy. After an experience of five years, 
I love farming, and no ordinary consideration would 
induce me to leave it for the care, the toil, the anx- 
iety and uncertainties of business in the city." 

Mr. Seely continues on his cheaply purchased 
farm, for which, last year, he was offered $15,000. 
This case embraces all the strong points which the 
neglected lands of the two border slave States pre- 
sent. Slave labor exhausts the land, and starves 
upon it until compelled by a famine of its own cre- 
ation to emigrate. Free labor comes in and changes 
the scene from scarcity to plenty. With thirty 
slaves to work this land, it became too poor to keep 
them, but with three or four free laborers it yielded 
10* 



226 . HOW TO GET A FARM, 

bountiful crops, while in ten years its market value 
increased four hundred per cent. 

Northern men, who are thus astonished at the 
cheapness of these lands, and incredulous as to their 
value, have overlooked the great underlying fact 
that the prosperity of these two States has been 
weighed down by the presence of slavery ; that the 
average value of land in the slave States has uni- 
formly been less than in the free States ; that in the 
former there are no large cities to give value to 
thousands of surrounding acres, by furnishing 
markets for their products ; that they support no 
manufactories of their own, but depend almost ex- 
clusively on ours ; that consumer and producer are 
everywhere widely separated ; that labor, instead of 
being diversified, is confined principally to agricul- 
ture ; that instead of being honored, it has been 
despised ; that education and morals have been 
neglected, and free discussion forbidden. Into com- 
munities so governed, Northern men, educated to a 
higher standard, refused to migrate. It is true, that 
some were moved to do so, but the census proves 
that there are more native-born emigrants from the 
Southern States to the North, than Northerners to 
the South. Foreigners avoided it for kindred rea- 
sons. Thus, with no increase of population from 
abroad, and with very little at home, it was im- 
possible for land to rise in value. As the West 
has grown to her colossal proportions by force of 
immigration, so the South, having none, has failed 
to increase her numbers to an extent sufficient to 
enhance the value of her soil. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE, 227 

This Unnatural condition of things is now passing 
away, and a new era is opening on the South. 
Delaware and Maryland, the two slave States near- 
est to the North, and, therefore, the most accessible, 
are already beginning to feel its influence. Slavery 
removed, they are becoming worthy of Northern 
attention and enterprise. Delaware is rapidly re- 
viving. Emigration already sets strongly toward 
her cheap and fertile soil. She is less exhausted 
than Maryland, and will revive the sooner. An in- 
fusion of Northern morals, capital, and enterprise, 
will regenerate her laws, her institutions, and her 
habit of thought. Such, also, in the end, will be 
the happy experience of Maryland. But until the 
people of the free States enter in by families and 
colonies, taking possession of the places which 
nearly two centuries of slavery have made waste, 
and teaching the inhabitants new thoughts, new 
habits, and a new civilization, they must remain as 
they are. Up to this moment they have stood still. 
If they are to advance, it can only be by help of 
Northern immigration. As that imperfect form of 
civilization whose basis was slave labor, has failed 
to promote State advancement, so the superior one, 
whose basis has been education and free labor, must 
be called in to work out in the slave region the only 
salvation which could prevent it from sinking into 
a barbarism that was overwhelming the white race 
as well as the black. Its humanizing influence 
having been sufficient for itself, it will be found 
equally potential for others. 



228 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



CHAPTER X. 

Wild Lands of New Jersey — Opening of the first Railroad — 
Rapid Improvements — New Towns — Hammonton, Egg Harbor 
City, Vineland, its history, condition, and future — The Neigh- 
boring Lands. 

Of all the Middle States, none contain so wide an 
area of uncultivated land, in proportion to the whole, 
as New Jersey. By the report of the Geological 
Survey, made in 1856, it appears that of 4,960,595 
acres in the State, 3,192,604 acres were, at that 
time, entirely uncultivated. In 1855, when a bill 
was before the Legislature for incorporating a com- 
pany to construct an air-line railroad leading from 
New York across the lower section of the State, the 
condition and extent of that uncultivated region 
were often referred to. The Hon. William Parry, 
Speaker of the House, made the following state- 
ments: 

" The amount of land in West Jersey, including the 
counties of Ocean and Monmouth, which would be ben- 
efited by this road, embraces an area of 2,632,000 acres, 
and in the same section, according to the census of 1850, 
there are 600,681 acres of improved land, leaving unim- 
proved, mainly for want of railroad facilities, over 2,000,000 
of acres. This large extent of country, up to July, 1854, 
when the Camden and Atlantic Railroad was opened, had 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 229 

no railroad except that skirting along the northern border, 
following the sinuosities of the river, with spurs to Mount 
Holly and Freehold, located mainly to accommodate the 
through travel, without reference to the wants of the in- 
terior. 

"Can any other State show so large a tract of fertile 
land, so well adapted to cultivation, and so admirably lo- 
cated as this great peninsula, intercepted between the 
largest city in the Union and the broad Atlantic, fronting 
hundreds of miles on the great waters connecting us with 
Europe, with no more railroads than this section has ? The 
Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company have the credit 
of opening the way through this heretofore uncultivated 
portion of our State. Cast your eyes along that road, the 
location of which is not so favorable for reaching the eastern 
market as this Air Line, and see the magical effect upon 
the value of property. Thousands of acres of land, which, 
previous to its construction, were comparatively of little 
value, although naturally good, the location being so re- 
mote that the price obtained for crops in market would 
not bear the expense of carting them through the sand, 
have, since the completion of said road, advanced in value, 
some, one hundred, some five hundred per cent., and some 
more, according to the location. The wood which covers 
most of the high table land, and has heretofore been con- 
sidered an incumbrance in the way of cultivating the soil, 
now readily commands from three to four dollars per cord 
on the road." 

The testimony of Mr. Parry becomes especially 
valuable from two facts — he unites in himself the 
two professions of land surveyor and nurseryman. 
He has been for many years the successful propri- 
etor of a nursery embracing two hundred acres, in 



230 

Burlington county. As surveyor, he necessarily 
travelled on foot over the land he describes, and 
therefore had the fullest opportunity of seeing it, 
while his lifelong occupation of growing trees and 
plants of all descriptions, qualifies him as a compe- 
tent witness as to their capabilities. Thus qualified 
as an impartial judge, Mr. Parry further said : 

" Having spent some time during the past summer sur- 
veying in that vicinity, I witnessed what would otherwise 
have seemed almost incredible ; one tract of 30,000 acres 
was purchased a little before the location of said road, at 
$1 per acre, and sold shortly after at $5 per acre; $30,000 
given and $150,000 received by that transaction, which 
land is now being divided into small farms, and a large 
portion of it already sold to actual settlers, at $10 per 
acre. Another tract of between 20,000 and 30,000 acres 
has, since the opening of said railroad, been divided into 
lots and farms, and all sold at $10 per acre to over one 
thousand purchasers. 

" This land has not yet reached one-half its real value, 
for by this railroad it is brought within one hour's ride of 
Philadelphia, and it is # fertile land, of a sandy loam on the 
surface, underlaid with clay and gravel, so very essential to 
retain manures and moisture, and promote the growth of 
fruit trees, plants and flowers, which flourish remarkably. 
It is well adapted to raising all kinds of vegetables and 
grain, which can be taken to market as quick and cheap by 
railroad as similar articles can in wagons from farms which, 
owing to their proximity to the city, will bring from $100 
to* $200 per acre. 

" Peaches, which seem to have degenerated in older sec- 
tions, where the soil has been highly stimulated with arti- 
ficial manures, there I beheld in a flourishing condition ; 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 231 

trees over fifteen years of age were laden with luscious 
fruit, bending their slender branches nearly or quite to the 
ground. There is scarcely an enterprise offering such rich 
rewards for capital and labor as the extensive cultivation of 
peaches along the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. Orchards 
there would rival those so recently celebrated in Delaware. 

" Grapes were abundant, and plums without planting — 
natives of the soil — offered their fruit gratuitously. This is 
only a part, several other tracts, varying in size from 17,000 
to 70,000 acres each, and many of smaller dimensions, are 
now offered at the low sum of from $5 to $10 per acre, and 
purchasers and settlers are actually pouring in by thou- 
sands, like pigeons to their roost. It seems almost incred- 
ible that land of this quality and price should so long re- 
main unnoticed by enterprising men, within thirty or forty 
miles of Philadelphia, and it is altogether owing to the 
Camden and Atlantic Railroad that it is now brought be- 
fore the public. 

"Great as these developments are, they dwindle away 
when compared with what the Air Line will unfold. We 
who have lived along the Delaware river, and been bound 
as with a spell to the Camden and Amboy road, cannot 
appreciate the hidden treasures through the interior of our 
State. Through this great Peninsula, a large part of which 
is naturally good land, and all valuable for some purposes, 
penetrated by lively streams, some of them navigable, many 
above the limit of navigation would furnish strong power 
for mills and factories, and all of them, in addition to nu- 
merous springs, afford an abundant supply of soft water. 

"x\fter the fires, which frequently pass through the 
woods, destroying large quantities of timber, have abated, 
Nature, ever active in good works, pushes forth a sponta- 
neous growth of rich, sweet grass, equally nutritious either 
in the green or dry state, and so protected by dead bushes 



232 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

and trees as to defy the skill of man to gather it; but it is 
well adapted for feeding stock, and herds of young cattle 
are marked and driven there from the surrounding country 
to graze on the pasture, shielded from the sun, and supplied 
with brooks of pure water, from which they are drawn in 
the fall or at the approach of winter, fat and ready for the 
knife. 

" I have examined these lands of which I speak, have 
spent much time in surveying and tracing out the bound- 
aries of hundreds and thousands of acres, and have yet to 
find the first acre that is not valuable for some purpose — 
that does not possess intrinsic worth within itself. Some 
swamps which are termed worthless by the casual observer 
from a stage en route for the fashionable watering places on 
the coast, when examined through the aid of science, un- 
fold large deposits of iron ore, more than enough for home 
consumption. Others are well adapted to, and periodically 
furnish a spontaneous growth of tall, stately white cedars, 
unequaled for fencing material. Some of the land on 
which there is no growth of timber or grass, has been 
called barren, but upon a closer view it is found to consist 
of a superior quality of glass-sand, and would furnish large 
quantities for exportation. Other portions are underlaid 
with large deposits of marl, so very fertilizing to the soil 
when brought to its surface. The amount of this valuable 
article is deemed inexhaustible — at least, there is a plenty 
to enrich the whole State of New Jersey, if we had rail- 
roads to distribute it. On other portions, on which there is 
but a small growth of timber and scanty supply of grass, 
sand is found to predominate, intermixed with a fine loam. 
This quality of land is admirably adapted to the cultivation 
of early vegetables; heavy rains leaving the surface and 
filtering through the soil, when followed by a hot sun, act 
like gentle, refreshing showers to hot-house plants; the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 233 

ground still remains free and mellow to imbibe the atmos- 
pheric influence, and does not bake in drying so as to ex- 
clude tlie air, like our heavy, loamy land. This is the 
reason why sweet potatoes grown on light, sandy soil, are 
dry and mealy when cooked, light colored and of excellent 
quality, while those grown on rich, heavy land, worth from 
$100 to $200 per acre, according to the location, are 
watery, heavy, dark colored and unpalatable. This is the 
reason why our light Jersey soil is so very certain for a 
crop of round potatoes." 

Here are some two millions of acres of unculti- 
vated land, shut out from all ready approach, until 
the year 1854:, for want of railroads. In that year 
the Camden and Atlantic road was opened. It be- 
gins at Camden, opposite to Philadelphia, and ex- 
tends to the ocean at Atlantic City, once a mere 
barren sand-heap, but now a populous town, with 
gravelled streets lighted with gas, and built up with 
great hotels on the beach, and private summer resi- 
dences of wealthy Philadelphians. At that time 
Atlantic county contained 315,000 acres, of which 
only 15,000 were improved ; Cumberland contained 
335,450 acres, with only 48,460 improved. The 
railroad traversed an almost desolate wilderness. 
The land had only a nominal price, and was con- 
stantly accumulating in large tracts in the hands of 
wealthy owners. But no sooner had the railroad 
been opened than the wdiole condition of things was 
changed. Its track is becoming lined with farms 
and villages. The old growth of pine and scrub 

jt is being cleared off, buildings erected, lands en- 
closed, and crops produced. On every side the 



234 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

traveller sees tokens of rapid and substantial im- 
provement, for a market has been opened for what- 
ever the land can be made to yield. 

Large tracts have been bought by companies and 
individuals, and divided into small farms for the ac- 
commodation of settlers. It is the West over again, 
only on a smaller scale. One of the hrst of these 
enterprises was at Hammonton, where 5,000 acres 
were speedily sold in small farms, many of the set- 
tlers coming from JSJew England. They find a cash 
market at Philadelphia for all that they can pro- 
duce. Yet this was a barren tract, producing noth- 
ing salable but wild berries. Another settlement 
on the railroad is called Egg Harbor City, founded 
by Germans, who bought a large tract at a low 
price immediately after the road was opened, and 
divided it up into town lots and farms. The excel- 
lence of the location has attracted to it many fami- 
lies from the West. Nearly all the dwellings are of 
brick, made on the spot. They have several brick- 
yards, numerous stores, a printing office, piano fac- 
tories, saw-mills, and other industrial establishments. 
The streets are lined with shade trees, and the whole 
settlement is a model of enterprise, ingenuity and 
thrift. As seen from the railroad, it will strike 
every observer as an eminently flourishing place. 
A great area of wild land has been cleared and 
farmed, and is producing crops quite satisfactory to 
the owners. Some are establishing vineyards, oth- 
ers growing tobacco, and others sending great quan- 
tities of fruit and vegetables to Philadelphia. All 
the land thus taken up and improved has quintupled 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 235 

in value within a few years, while that within the 
neighborhood, though still wild, has advanced in 
price at least three to four fold. 

The natural quality of the soil of this whole sec- 
tion of New Jersey has been long established as 
good. Its means for improvement are abundant 
and cheap, in consequence of the vast deposits of 
marl. You see these deposits cropping out by the 
road-side, in some places far above the water level. 
The area of this marl deposit covers 900 square 
miles, or 576,000 acres, and its benefits are shared 
by a large district of country lying on each side of 
it, so that a much greater area than that stated may 
be fertilized by using it. It has been worth mil- 
lions of dollars to the State in the increased value 
of land and produce. It has long been known that 
Monmouth county potatoes, grown with marl as 
manure, command half a dollar more per barrel 
in New York market than any other kind. Mr. 
Cook's report on the geological and agricultural 
resources of this portion of the State, made in 1857, 
informs us, that while the potato crop of Connect- 
icut, New York, and Pennsylvania, has diminished, 
that of New Jersey and Delaware has largely in- 
creased. This increase in New Jersey was mostly 
in the counties of Monmouth, Burlington, Camden, 
Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland, the counties in 
which marl is found, while in the other counties the 
gain was small, and in some there was a material 
falling off. In Delaware, Newcastle county, where 
marl is found, shows the largest gain. In New 
York, only three counties showed an increase. 



236 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

These were on Long Island, and the largest was in 
those which, there is some reason to believe, lie in 
the same geological formation with those New Jer- 
sey counties in which there was the greatest increase. 
Uniformly, the potato crop increased most where 
marl existed. Mr. Cook says : 

" The absolute worth of the marl to farmers it is 
difficult to estimate. The region of country in 
which it is found has been almost made by it. Be- 
fore its use the soil was exhausted, and much of the 
land was so lessened in value that its price was but 
little, if any, more value than that of Government 
lands at the West ; while now, by the use of marl, 
these worn-out soils have been brought up to more 
than their native fertility, and the value of the 
land increased from fifty to a hundred fold. In 
these districts, as a general fact, the marl has been 
obtained at little more cost than that of digging; and 
hauling but a short distance. There are instances, 
however, in which large districts of worn-out land 
have been wholly renovated by the use of this sub- 
stance, though situated from five to fifteen miles 
from the marl beds, and when, if a fair allowance 
is made for labor, the cost per bushel could not 
have been less than from twelve to sixteen cents. 
Instances are known where it has been thought re- 
munerative at twenty-five cents per bushel." 

A ton of marl is sometimes dug from under each 
square foot of surface ; at even half this rate, a 
square mile will yield nearly 14,000,000 tons. The 
quantity being thus inexhaustible, the price is con- 
sequently low. A right to dig a pit ten feet square 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 237 

costs about $8. The buyer removes the top soil, 
and plunges into a deposit ten to thirty feet deep, 
and goes down until stopped by water. In other 
cases he digs on high ground, and obtains more 
marl at less cost. The farmer applies from live to 
twenty-live loads to each acre, according to the ex- 
hausted condition of his land. The latter is uni- 
formly benefited by the application. Facts of this 
description are unanswerable; while the statistics of 
the potato crop are remarkable enough to secure 
attention from the most indifferent observer. 

Another singular resource for enriching these 
lands has been discovered and applied. A large 
crab, known as horse-foot, sea-spider, and king-crab, 
abounds along the sea-coast, but nowhere in such 
numbers as on the Delaware Bay. In June, they 
come on shore in numbers absolutely incredible, for 
the purpose of depositing their eggs, covering the 
beach for a distance of forty miles, a moving, crowd- 
ing, jostling cavalcade, looking as if the beach 
itself were a living expanse. For weeks they are 
to be found upon the beach. A million of these 
unsightly creatures could be gathered in a single 
mile. The sand is so thickly covered with their 
eggs, that they are shovelled up by wagon loads, 
and carried off as food for hogs and chickens. The 
hogs feed and fatten on the whole crabs, whose 
average weight is four pounds. During the season 
when this spontaneous offering of the sea is made 
to man, the farmers near the ocean come there and 
collect the living crabs in huge piles, where they 
cover them with soil, thus composting thern into a 



238 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

most energetic manure. A quantity equal to two 
to four thousand crabs, when applied to the poorest 
soils, may be relied on to produce 20 to 25 bushels 
ot wheat, though even 30 are by no means uncom- 
mon. This fertilizing power has long been known 
among the farmers. 

As it was manifestly impossible to use up the 
millions of crabs that came upon the beach, within 
the few weeks that they remained upon it, a manu- 
factory of manure was established at Goshen, in 
Cape May county, some nine years ago, by Messrs. 
Ingham and Beesley. These gentlemen first dry the 
crabs, then grind them into powder, and deodorise 
the product by combining plaster and charcoal. The 
manure thus produced they call cancerine, and is 
sold over a wide extent of country. The quantity 
manufactured in 1863 was about 500 tons. It is 
cheaper than guano, which contains about one-sixth 
of ammonia, while this has been proved to contain 
more than a fourth. On corn, potatoes, &c, this 
manure produces very marked results, in all cases 
beneficial. With these bountiful treasures of the 
sea and land within reach of the people of this 
portion of New Jersey, it can be the fault of none 
but themselves if they should fail to convert their 
admirable soil into one vast garden. 

When access to this long neglected portion of the 
State was opened, in 1854, over the Camden and 
Atlantic Railroad, nothing was more natural than 
that the attention of enterprising men from other 
quarters should be attracted towards it. To secure 
this attention of the great outside public was a 



A.ND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 239 

principal object of those who built the road. The 
holders of the vast tract of cedar, pine, and scrub- 
oak, through which the road was to run, combined 
in aid of the enterprise. Half the railroads in our 
country, all of those which traverse wood and 
prairie throughout the West, owe their origin to 
like combinations of great land-owners to open 
up an inaccessible region to settlement and im- 
provement. Such objects may be denounced as 
speculative ; but their accomplishment has con- 
ferred blessings on the Union which cannot be 
estimated. It has provided new and better homes 
for millions, built up entire States whose prosperity 
is an amazement to the world, and done more to 
secure the perpetuity of the Union than any other 
movement witnessed among us. 

As it has uniformly been in the West on the 
opening of a new railroad, so it was in jNew Jersey 
on the opening of that from Camden to Atlantic 
City. Enterprising men were drawn to the region 
thus inviting speculation, investment and improve- 
ment. They brought capital, skill and energy, and 
quickly made an impression. Among the earliest 
and most thorough-going of these was Mr. Charles 
K. Landis, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This gen- 
tleman was impressed with the great value and 
availability of organized colonization. He secured 
5,000 acres on the railroad at Hammonton, and in 
185S his colony was fairly under way. His ideas 
with respect to colonization appear to have outstrip- 
ped all others for comprehensiveness, while his plans 
were definite, practical, and liberal. He sold to 



24:0 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

none but actual settlers, telling the mere speculators 
to go elsewhere, and gave especial encouragement to 
fruit growing. He introduced the New England 
school system, and kept out the sale of liquor. He 
laid out streets and roads, and in other ways ex- 
pended money liberally in promoting the welfare of 
the settlers. These were of the best class, princi- 
pally from New England — intelligent, tasteful and 
industrious. Home manufactures of various kinds 
were introduced, churches and school-houses were 
built, good crops were yielded to the farmer, and a 
general prosperity prevailed which astonished all 
who witnessed it. The settlement speedily num- 
bered 2,000 persons, who now produce more food 
than they need, and ship large quantities to New 
York and Philadelphia. 

The experience acquired in settling Hammonton 
enlarged the views of Mr. Landis, showed him his 
omissions and mistakes, and gave him ideas which 
he considered so valuable that he determined to 
carry them out on a wider field. Accordingly, in 
1861 he secured 25,000 acres in one body, in Cum- 
berland county, all in the same wild and unculti- 
vated condition. This tract of waste land lay on 
the then newly opened railroad from Camden to 
Cape May, passing through Milville and Glassboro. 
It covered an area of 45 square miles, with the rail- 
road passing through it, and was within 35 miles of 
Philadelphia. This settlement he named Yine- 

LAND. 

In this great undertaking his plan was to estab- 
lish a perfect, regular, and comprehensive system of 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 241 

public improvement for the benefit of the commu- 
nity to be there located ; to found a town in con- 
nection with angl as an adjunct to an agricultural 
settlement ; to develop therein a system of home 
manufactures and industry ; to promote religion, 
morals, and a high standard of education, and to 
provide homes for intelligent and worthy families 
who might be seeking them. 

It was a gigantic project, such as no other indi- 
vidual in this country had ever undertaken to carry 
out. It required experience, incessant personal at- 
tention, great administrative and engineering abil- 
ity, and the expenditure of a large capital. There 
have been owners of tracts as large, but none who 
undertook to transform them from a desolation into 
a populous community. The lay of this land was 
such as to admit of its being plotted out as the 
owner desired. There were no rocks to blast, no 
mountains to remove, no unwholesome swamps to 
drain or fill up. He began the enterprise amid the 
gloom which overspread the public mind immedi- 
ately after the outbreak of the slaveholders' rebel- 
lion. His friends predicted difficulties and discour- 
agements, while all advised him to wait before 
commencing such an undertaking. But his confi- 
dence was not to be shaken — he knew that the very 
convulsion against which his friends were warning 
him, w r as one of those which, of all others, induce 
men to look for pecuniary safety by purchasing 
land. 

In August, 1861, Mr. Landis went upon his new 
purchase with a surveyor, for the purpose of locating 

11 



24:2 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

the first street that was to cross the railroad, since 
called Landis Avenue. As there was no carriage 
road either to or through the woods, they traversed 
the narrow cow-paths afoot, until they reached the 
spot where the surveyor was to plant his first stake. 
A profound stillness reigned around them — nothing 
could be heard beyond a rustling of the leaves — 
there was not a house within several miles. While 
the surveyor was planting his stakes, an old dweller 
among the pines and scrub oaks of that region 
came up to them, looked at the instruments, and 
inquired of Mr. Landis what they were doing. 
He replied that he was locating an avenue a hun- 
dred feet wide for a new town, and that within two 
years he would see the spot they then stood on sur- 
rounded with buildings for miles, with farms and 
orchards where now the forest alone could be seen. 
The man turned away incredulous, and pitying the 
infatuation of the projector. No wonder — he had 
lived seventy years in that particular locality as a 
wood-chopper, had never been to Philadelphia, did 
not know how a city looked, and considered the 
idea of building one in that wilderness as the dream 
of a lunatic. 

But the town was laid out, with many five and 
ten acre lots, and many farms. Miles of spacious 
streets and roads were opened, public squares, and 
a park. Every purchaser was required to plant the 
front of his property with shade- trees, to build a 
house within a year, at a certain distance from the 
roadside, and affording room in front for shrubbery 
and flowers. Unity of plan was thus secured, in- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 243 

snring the utmost neatness and the highest embel- 
lishment — it was to be, in fact, a vast assemblage of 
beautiful cottage residences. Mr. Landis has al- 
ready, at his own expense, opened nearly eighty 
miles of streets and roads, building bridges wherever 
needed, cleared out acres of stumps and rubbish, es- 
tablished the grade, and on many other improve- 
ments expended thousands of dollars in making his 
great enterprise acceptable to the numerous families 
who have located on his property. 

I visited this remarkable spot in the summer of 
1864, to examine its condition and surroundings. I 
had known and passed over the spot, years before, 
when it was a perfect solitude, with neither hut nor 
clearing. It would be impossible, within these 
limits, to specify the marvellous changes that had 
been made. The forest had disappeared, and in its 
place was to be seen a settlement containing some 
650 houses and 4,000 inhabitants. There was a 
rapidly-growing town, having churches, schools, 
stores, mills, and other conveniences. I conversed 
with numerous settlers as to whence they came and 
how they fared in their new location. As a body, 
they belong to the better class of citizens, are edu- 
cated, intelligent, moral, and enterprising. The 
drones which infest other communities are never 
found in hives like this. Great numbers of them 
are from New England, while the neighboring 
States, and even the West, are largely represented 
n this common centre. Many have built costly 
and elegant houses. Many are professional fruit- 
growers and gardeners. Those who buy farms are 



244 

practical farmers. There are wealthy families in 
Yineland who remain there because of the mildness 
of the climate and healthfulness of the place. Taken 
altogether, the settlement has an old and cultivated 
look already. 

The soil of this great tract varies from a sandy to 
clay loam, is retentive of manures, and abundantly 
productive. It produces from 100 to 250 bushels 
of potatoes per acre, 15 to 25 of wheat, though the 
premium crop tor wheat in Cumberland county, in 
1855, was 41 bushels per acre. Of shelled corn, 50 
to 75 bushels is the ordinary crop, and two tons of 
grass. Fruit trees and vines bear abundantly. I 
saw new peach orchards of thrifty growth, some 
trees showing fruit, and grape vines giving promise 
of abundant crops. The winters are so mild as to 
allow out-of-door work nearly all through them. 
Mr. Landis told me that for seven years he had not 
known the ploughing to be interrupted, by reason 
of frost, for five days in any one winter. All kinds 
of fruits are cultivated, the five and ten acre lots 
being mostly devoted to the smaller descriptions. 
All such are planted so that the picking will come 
in succession, thus — strawberries, raspberries, black- 
berries, peaches, grapes, apples, &c. 

In driving many miles over Yineland, I entered 
into conversation with numerous settlers at work by 
the roadside. Most of these happened to be farm- 
ers from the West, from New England, and western 
New York. All were busy on their growing crops, 
sometimes in groups of two or three in the corn 
held. Not one of them but expressed his prefer- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 245 

ence for his new location over the bleak climate he 
had left. I saw but one desirous of selling and re- 
moving, and but one house having on it a handbill 
as being in market. Most of these farms were just 
carved out of the woods, showing piles of roots that 
had been grubbed up. They were, of course, rough 
looking, like all new clearings in a new country ; 
but the hand of industry was rapidly taming their 
wildnees, and bringing them into prime condition. 
The general testimony was, that one day's labor on 
this soil would accomplish twice as much work as 
if expended on the heavy or strong soil from which 
they had migrated. 

Such was the condition of the farms bought 
within six months or a year. Those which had been 
taken up by the first settlers, those of two and a- 
half years ago, presented a very different appear- 
ance. The genial and tractable soil had enabled 
their owners to work a great transformation even in 
that brief period. From most of these the stumps 
had wholly disappeared. Great fields of grain were 
whitening to the harvest ; many acres of peach and 
apple orchards were to be seen, the former promis- 
ing to yield a crop the coming season ; gardens were 
full of fine vegetables ; the front upon the road had 
been trimmed up and seeded to grass, while shrub- 
bery and flowers were visible on many of the lawns. 
Of the thirty-acre farm of Mr. William O. IT. 
Guynneth, a brief notice may serve as an illustration. 
This gentleman is from Boston, and was among the 
earliest of the settlers. He bought thirty acres, 
then utterly wild, now completely tamed. His 



24:6 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

dwelling-house is so beautiful a structure as to com- 
mand admiration anywhere. He has planted' 
orchards, now growing finely, and has acres of ex- 
cellent wheat. His large cornfield showed as fine 
a growth as farmer could desire, and so also did his 
clover crop. 

I walked over his ample garden, vineyard, and 
fruit grounds. Every kind of ordinary garden truck 
was growing with a luxuriance altogether unex- 
pected, and fully equal to the average of that on 
lands that sell readily at seven times the cost of his. 
Several hundred grape vines, Concord, Isabella, and 
Catawba, two years planted, showed such an excess 
of fruit as to compel Mr. Guyimeth to remove at 
least half. In no section of New Jersey have I seen 
the grape vine grow so rampantly as in this ground. 
Cherry trees, pears, and other fruits, flourished 
equally well. It was the same with strawberries, 
gooseberries, and blackberries. This ground had 
not received a particle of manure. What it now is 
affords a practical illustration of the real value of 
this section of New Jersey — three years ago a 
forest, now the productive and really elegant home 
of an intelligent and accomplished family. 

On reaching the extreme boundary of the Vine- 
land tract, I called on Mr. Eobert G. BrandrifT, who 
has here cultivated a farm of 90 acres during the 
last eleven years. This length of tillage I judged 
likely to show what was the real stamina of this 
soil — whether it had any enduring heart in it, or 
whether it would speedily run down to barrenness. 
As Mr. Brandriff's land was of even lighter char- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 247 

acter than that of Vineland, its behavior under 
long cropping would afford a favorable test for the 
whole neighborhood. He gave me, without reserve, 
all the particulars of a truly remarkable history, 
with permission to use them. 

Eleven years ago, this farm was covered with 
forest. The owner offered it to Mr. Brandriff for 
$400 for the 90 acres, and an ample time for pay- 
ment, and being a storekeeper a few miles off, added 
the important help of a credit on his books for sup- 
plies for family use, and materials for buildings, to 
the amount of $600. At this time Mr. Brandriff 
was not possessed of a dollar ; but he went to work, 
cleared up his land little by little, a few acres 
yearly, and thus conquered all difficulties, until 
now he has 60 acres in cultivation, from which his 
receipts, in 1S63, were $2,000. His family consists 
of six persons, who have lived well during all. this 
time. His fences and buildings cost him some 
$1600. He keeps four cows, pigs, and one horse, 
by which all the work on the easily tilled soil of 
the farm is done. He hires but one man, except in 
busy times. For the wants of his family, and the 
prosecution of other improvements, his annual out- 
lay is $1,000. 

Mr. Brandriff showed me his account book for 
the eleven years he had been at work, in which all 
his receipts and expenditures were clearly entered, 
with the balance accurately struck at each year's 
end. His farm is now worth $6,000, and he has 
abundant property outside of it to represent any 
debt he owes. His residence here has not been the 



248 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

hum-drum existence of a mere sandpiper or wood- 
chuck. He is a keen sportsman with line and gun. 
At the proper season he plunges into the forest that 
covers much of this section of New Jersey, camps 
out at eight as naturally as an Indian, considers 
sleep of no consequence when compared with a 
coon hunt, and is a dead shot at any unlucky deer 
that crosses his path. The huge antlers hanging up 
in his shed afford evidence of his skill with the rifle. 
At other times he visits the neighboring waters of 
Delaware Bay, where squadrons of wild ducks make 
generous contributions to his fondness for the gun. 

Mr. Brandriff sells his crops at Milville, two miles 
from his farm. His wheat crop has been 20 bushels 
per acre, 75 of shelled corn, 200 of round potatoes, 
100 of sweet, 560 of carrots, 620 of turnips, while 
his cabbages pay $100 per acre, and of grass 
the yield is two to three tons. For manure, his 
main dependence is on the home product, sometimes 
using the fertilizers. The particulars of his ex- 
perience have . been thus recited as affording un- 
answerable evidence of the character of nearly all 
the land in this heretofore neglected region of New 
Jersey. Much of it is superior to this particular 
farm. 

The visitor to Yineland cannot fail to notice the 
absence of fences, even in a ride of fifty miles. No 
farms have been fenced in, and not a dozen town 
lots. It had been calculated that $5,000,000 would 
be required to do the fencing of the whole tract. 
To save the settlement from this useless tax, Mr. 
Landis invoked the aid of the Legislature. A new 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 249 

township was erected, bearing his name, in which 
the running at large of cattle and swine was pro- 
hibited — thus each settler fences in his own stock 
only, and is saved the great cost of fencing out the 
vicious road-thieves of his neighbors. No other 
township in New Jersey is found with a similar 
regulation. 

Another peculiarity will be noticed — the total 
absence of grog-shops, with gangs of loafers con- 
gregated about their doors. The law erecting 
Landis township gave to the people the power of 
saying whether rum should be sold there or not. 
So far they have rigidly refused to have it among 
them, and the character of the settlers coming in 
will guarantee exclusion in the future. The fine 
hotel which accommodates strangers has been at no 
expense for either bar or toddy-stick. These two 
enactments were .portions of Mr. Landis's original 
plan, and afford satisfactory evidence of the sound 
morals and practical good sense which he has 
brought to bear in carrying it out. 

No one can spend a day at this place without be- 
ing strongly impressed in its favor, nor converse 
with its proprietor without being struck with his re- 
markable executive capacity. His whole enterprise 
of settling a tract of forty-five square miles of wild 
land, has been conceived and carried out on the 
most comprehensive scale. It is now successfully 
established on what was three years ago a perfect 
solitude, by the energy of a single capacious mind. 
I have seen much of the process of making new 
settlements on the waste places of the earth ; but 
11* 



250 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

no instance of methodical planning, of far-seeing 
judgment, of just calculation of greater ends from 
a great beginning:, than is here exhibited. The ori- 
ginal plan, as it was transferred from the projector's 
mind to paper, can now be seen unfolded in all its 
symmetrical vastness. Even the details are every- 
where visible, all of them in harmony with the 
whole. 

That these results have been actually realized, is 
shown by the rapid and astonishing success of the 
settlement. Families are daily coming in from a 
distance, and selecting homes wherever they think 
best. As at the beginning, the proprietor contin- 
ues to convey these locations at low prices and on 
liberal credit. Mere idle speculators — the men who 
buy but do not improve, were not wanted, and have 
been kept out. Many purchasers being well sup- 
plied with means, paid cash for what they bought ; 
but to many worthy families the credit given has 
proved extremely useful. The railroad from Cam- 
den through Milville and Glassboro to Cape May, 
renders the spot accessible to all. 

Yineland is probably increasing as rapidly as any 
new town in the West. In March last, lots were 
selling so rapidly as to insure the erection of 40 
new houses every month, or 480 per annum. No 
such annual growth as this was realized by William 
Penn in the early history of Philadelphia. These 
new buildings are not ephemeral structures, mere 
shanties to keep off sun and raiu, such as one con- 
nects with the idea of a new settlement, but sub- 
stantial and durable houses. Some of them are 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 251 

truly elegant, such only as would be built by men 
possessing means and taste. When the whole tract 
has been disposed of, the population of Vineland 
will be 15,000. Now, the population of the entire 
county of Cumberland in 1860 was only 22,605 ; so 
that in a few years more it will have been nearly 
doubled by the energy and enterprise of a single in- 
dividual. Whichever way you turn, progress and 
improvement of some kind are visible — here a new 
house is going up, there a new farm is being clear- 
ed. The settlement must become in the end an im- 
mense fruit garden. Its products reach the two 
great cities over cheap and rapid railroads, and 
command cash at generous prices. Its "history 
shows the great public benefit that can be realized 
from the ownership of a vast tract by one man, 
when that man uses it and handles it as this tract 
has been managed. Such wholesale colonization 
may have been attempted by others, but it has 
nowhere been so successful as here. 

No ducal owner of hereditary acres, either in 
England or on the Continent, with an annual in- 
come greater than the value of the fee of all Yine- 
land, has ever undertaken a similar scheme of colo- 
nization. Such men devote their enormous wealth 
to acquiring more land, not to sharing their acquisi- 
tions with their less fortunate neighbors. Instead 
of clearing up forests and letting in population to 
improve, and beautify, and acquire permanent and 
happy homes, they plant the already cleared ground 
with trees, and shut population out, increasing the 
difficulty of the masses for acquiring even the small- 



252 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

est freehold. It has been left for a single American 
citizen, whose capital, unlike that of these baronial 
landowners, lay more in his head than in his purse, 
to set before all others thus extensively endowed 
with land, an example which will add more largely 
to the sum of human happiness the oftener it may 
be imitated. 

As may be supposed, such a transformation as 
Mr. Landis has thus effected has powerfully affected 
the condition and value of thousands of acres within 
miles around Yineland. Prices have risen, settlers 
are coming in from abroad, and the area of the great 
body of waste land is annually becoming lessened 
by the creation of new farms. The cloud of preju- 
dice which overhung this portion of New Jersey 
has been effectually dispersed. Railroads have 
made it as accessible as auy other region. Within 
two hours' ride of it there is a population of a mil- 
lion of consumers whose consumption of its pro- 
ducts must annually increase. Within such an at- 
mosphere, these lands, which now sell at from $20 
to $30 per acre, must rapidly rise in value, until 
they reach the prices commanded north of Camden, 
where, having enjoyed railroad facilities for a longer 
period, they bring from $100 to $300 per acre. If 
the reader is at a loss where to find a farm, let him 
look in this quarter. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 



CHAPTER XL 

The West— Illinois, and the Central Railroad Lands— Climate, 
Soil and Productions — Vine Growing in Missouri — Free Lands 
in the Territories. 

The vast region popularly known as " The West," 
has been so often travelled by thousands from the 
older States, and so repeatedly described in print, 
that all must have a general knowledge of its char- 
acter and capabilities. Little, therefore, remains 
for me on these subjects, than a compilation of de- 
tails appropriate to the matter in hand — where to 
find a farm. 

In the year 1850 Congress granted to the Illinois 
Central Railroad Company 2,595,000 acres of land, 
to aid in building a railroad which would open up 
to sale' and settlement a much greater adjoining 
area belonging to Government, most of which had 
been many years in market without finding pur- 
chasers, even at the low price of a shilling per acre. 
The quality of the land thus so long for sale was 
undoubted. It was prairie and rolling land of well 
ascertained fertility, but, like the long neglected 
soil of Long Island and of certain portions of New 
Jersey and Delaware, was effectually shut out from 
public approach for want of railroads. Mr. Gree- 



254 HOW TO GET A FAKM. 

ley's description of the State, given in 1861, is too 
graphic to be omitted : 

" In the very heart of the great valley, midway between 
the Arctic and the Tropic, the Atlantic and the Rocky 
Mountains, lies the State of Illinois, the young Hercules of 
the West, touching Lake Michigan on the north, and the 
lower Ohio on the south, with the majestic Mississippi 
washing her entire western border, and the Wabash skirt- 
ing her for more than half its length on the east. Her 
growth, during the last decade, has been really more rapid 
and considerable than that of any other State, though some 
of the newest have increased in population by a larger per- 
centage than hers. Her population has all but doubled 
during the last decade, having risen from some 900,000 to 
about 1,700,000. 

" Other States have each some peculiarity in which it 
may fairly claim a precedence. Michigan and Wisconsin 
are both far better timbered, each having an abundance of 
pine, whereas Illinois has not a stick. Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia, • and Missouri, are richer in minerals ; Iowa and 
Kansas have more undulating surfaces, and are (we think) 
better watered ; Ohio lies nearer to the seaboard ; New 
England has her manufactures, and New York her foreign 
commerce ; but in average depth and richness of soil — in 
capacity to produce, cheaply, grain and grass, meat and 
vegetables, Illinois is probably the first among the States, 
and surpassed by no equal area on the face of the globe. 

" Originally, scarcity and imperfect distribution of timber, 
with defective facilities for transportation and travel, were 
her great drawbacks. Probably three-fourths of her sur- 
face were prairie when settlement commenced ; while her 
timber was for the most part stunted and gnarly, by reason 
of the high winds constantly wrenching, and the fierce fires 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 255 

frequently scorching it. She had no evergreens of conse- 
quence, and very few trees from which decent boards could 
be sawed. Many prairies were ten to twenty miles wide — 
some were thirty to forty. The deep, black muck which 
formed the soil was powdered into dust by drouth, or sod- 
den into mire by rain. The moment the prairie sod was 
cut through, the wheels of each loaded vehicle sank, 
through half of each year, nearly to the hub ; and thus 
not only building materials, salt and groceries, but fencing 
and fuel, were to be carted for long distances — a load of 
wheat being drawn to Chicago, and the proceeds converted 
into a load of boards for fencing — the journey out and 
back often consuming a week. Many a load of produce 
thus marketed, has seen nearly or quite its price absorbed 
in the inevitable expense of the journey out aud in. This 
impelled the State to engage prematurely in the construc- 
tion of canals, which involved her heavily in debt, without 
very materially improving her access to markets. Rail- 
roads followed in due season, and did her good service, 
while, being constructed mainly by private enterprise, 
whatever advantage accrued to the public was so much 
clear gain. Still, extensive areas of her soil must have re- 
mained unimproved, uninhabited for ages, but for the con- 
struction of the Illinois Central Railroad. That great work, 
munificently endowed with wild lands by Congress, starts 
from Chicago in the northeast, and Dunleith in the north- 
west of the State, and converging to a junction near the 
center, runs thence by a single line to Cairo in the extreme 
south, at the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, the 
work having thus a total length of over six hundred miles. 
And, though not run as the profit of the stockholders 
would have dictated, its course is precisely such as best 
conduced to the settlement aud growth of the State. Mil- 
lions of acres, else uninhabitable, are by it rendered among 



256 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

the most inviting and valuable of any wild lands on our 
Continent ; and though the Federal grant covered more 
than two and a half millions of acres, we believe the public 
domain was increased not merely in value, but in produc- 
tiveness to the Treasury by this enlightened liberality. 

" Illinois, already the fourth, and probably soon to be 
the third State in the Union — for Virginia is already be- 
hind her in every element of consequence and power — is 
yet in her infancy. Of her soil, probably less than one- 
fourth has yet been ploughed ; and her last crop — immense 
as it was, especially of corn — is but a fraction. of what she 
can and will produce. We believe her product of this 
staple already far exceeds that of any other State, while in 
wheat, beef, and pork, she is scarcely second to any. Her 
coal is hardly exceeded in abundance by that of any other 
State ; nearly every foot of her surface is underlaid with 
lime ; and her iron, though less abundant, is good. Her 
chief mart, though hardly thirty years old, ranks seventh 
among American cities ; it promises ere long to be the 
fifth. Illinois bids fair to have five millions of inhabitants 
in 1880, and to increase the number to ten millions early 
in the next century. Her career is hardly begun." 

Three years after the Central Railroad Company 
began their operations, their sales of land amount- 
ed to 1,312,373 acres, realizing a total sum of 
$16,663,823. The terms of sale are probably more 
liberal than are elsewhere to be found. Had they 
been otherwise, it would have been impossible to 
attract to a new and wholly unsettled country the 
largest body of settlers ever voluntarily collected on 
one spot within so short a period. The buyer has 
his choice among a million of acres still unsold, and 
may take land at from $7 to $12 and upward per 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 257 

acre, according to location. He may pay for it in 
cash, if able to do so, and thus obtain a discount of 
twenty per cent. ; or he may take land and be al- 
lowed four, live, six, and seven years in which to 
pay for it, but paying the interest yearly in advance. 
He may buy as small a tract as forty acres, or one 
as much larger as his means will justify. 

The land grant to this Company was the first pub- 
lic gratuity in aid of railroads. When first made, 
the central portion of Illinois was an unoccupied 
prairie, as fertile as any soil in the world, but 
wholly unavailable. It now swarms with popula- 
tion, that along the railroad having trebled within 
ten years. Great towns have sprung up along its 
track, and the annual growth of population and 
wealth is enormous. Here the enterprising man 
will be sure to find a farm, and the Railroad Com- 
pany will show him how to get it. Their road is 
704 miles in length, and extends from Cairo, in the 
extreme southern part of the State, to Dunleith, in 
the northwest, with a branch from Centralia, in the 
centre, to Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. 
For all the purposes of agriculture, these lands are 
equal to any in the world, producing wheat, barley 
and oats in the north ; corn and wheat in the cen- 
tre ; and wheat, tobacco and cotton in the south. 
In all parts of the State vast numbers of live stock 
are produced. A healthy climate, a rich soil, and 
railroads to convey to market the fullness of the 
earth — all combine to place in the hands of the 
working man the means of independence. No- 
where can the farmer, the mechanic, the manufac- 



258 now to get a farm, 

turer, and the laboring man, find surer rewards of 
industry. With 12,000 common schools, 21 col- 
leges, 48 academies, and a liberal fund for the sup- 
port of learning, Illinois offers the means of edu- 
cation such as few States can boast. All the 
conditions favorable to prosperity are to be found 
here. 

From publications made by the Company, most 
of the facts and descriptions contained in this chap- 
ter have been compiled ; such, at least, as refer to 
their lands, and to the statistics of climate and pro- 
ductions. The climate of Illinois is healthy, and 
the mortality is less than in almost any other part 
of the country. The immigrant seeking a location 
regards the healthfulness of the district as a matter 
of primary consideration, and Illinois, so far as its 
sanitary condition is concerned, ranks with the most 
favored States of the Union. The vital statistics 
collected in 1860 show that in this State the deaths 
per cent, to the population were in that year only 
1.14, while the average of the whole country was 
1.27. Extending 380 miles from north to south, 
Illinois has all the varieties of climate to be found 
between Boston, in Massachusetts, and Norfolk, in 
Virginia : in the southern part, the genial climate 
of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and in the 
northern section more nearly resembling that of 
Pennsylvania, Southern New York, New Jersey 
and Connecticut. 

The soil in the different parts of the State presents 
very marked characteristics. From the latitude of 
Chicago as far South as the Terre Haute and Alton 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 259 

Railroad, the country for the most part is open prai- 
rie, with here and there groves of timber, and tim- 
bered on the banks of the various streams. The 
soil in this region, consists of a rich black loam, and 
is remarkably adapted to the production of corn, 
sorghum and tame grasses. For stock-raising no 
better land can be found. South of this line the 
soil is lighter and of a greyish tinge — the country 
is also more broken, and the timber more plentiful. 
The small prairies in this region produce the best of 
winter wheat, tobacco, flax and hemp. From Cen- 
tralia to Cairo, in the south, the country is heavily 
timbered. In this district, fruit, tobacco, cotton, 
and the different productions of the Border States, 
are largely cultivated and highly remunerative. A 
large number of saw-mills are erected near the line 
of the railroad, the lumber from which commands 
at all times a ready sale. 

Indian corn is perhaps the most important crop 
in the country. It is applied to so great a variety 
of purposes, and is so indispensable an article for 
foreign consumption, that however abundantly it 
may be produced, the constantly increasing demand 
will press heavily upon the supply. In 1859 the 
United States yielded 827,694,528 bushels, of which 
Illinois contributed 115,296,779, about fifty millions 
of bushels more than any other State. Illinois stands 
pre-eminently first in the list of corn-producing 
States. 

For the culture of wheat the lands of the Illinois 
Central Railroad are in all respects equal to any 
in the State. One great advantage which these 



260 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

lands have, is their nearness to the railroad, by 
which the purchaser has the means of putting his 
crop in the market at the earliest or most favorable 
time, and at a cheap rate of transportation. Daring 
the year 1862, the stations on this road sent for- 
ward to market 4,688,755 bushels of wheat, besides^ 
567,627 barrels of flour. In Southern Illinois, win- 
ter wheat is almost certain to yield a good return to 
the grower. The reaping, threshing and cleaning 
machines, now so generally in use, have made wheat- 
growing a source of great profit to the farmer. 

It seems well established that cotton is to become 
a remunerative crop in the southern part of Illinois. 
It was cultivated in 1862 in almost every town 
south of Centralia, and if we regard the planting 
as an experiment, the result is completely satisfac- 
tory. It would be a low estimate to assume that in 
that year 5,000 bales of ginned cotton were grown. 
There was a large demand made upon the neighbor- 
ing States (particularly Tennessee), for cotton seed, 
and more than one hundred tons had been sent for- 
ward from Cairo and distributed. 

The rapidly increasing cultivation of sorghum in 
this country deserves particular notice. In another 
year Illinois will send to the eastern market thou- 
sands of barrels of sorghum molasses, besides retain- 
ing sufficient for home consumption. In 1859 this 
State produced 797,096 gallons, and at that time at- 
tention had only just been directed to sorghum. 
Since then its cultivation has been increased ten- 
fold. A prominent sugar refiner estimates the an- 
nual consumption of molasses in the United States 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 261 

at 80,000,000. gallons, and of this vast quantity of 
sweets it is safe to say the free States consume 
60,000,000 gallons. He goes on to say: "This 
enormous and increasing consumption of molasses 
and syrups in our Northern States should encourage 
the western cane growers in their efforts to produce 
'crops of western cane syrups, with the certainty 
that they will rind a ready sale for all that will be 
produced of merchantable quality and in good 
packages." 

Hemp and flax can be produced in Illinois, of as 
good a quality as any grown in Europe. Water- 
rotted hemp, from as far north as Sangamon county, 
when submitted to Government tests, compared 
favorably with Russian hemp, and exceeded in 
strength the standard fixed by the Government, in 
some instances as high as twenty per cent. Good 
corn lands are good hemp and flax lands, and there- 
fore we may safely conclude that Illinois can pro- 
duce these important articles much cheaper than 
they can be imported. If the fabrication of linen 
goods has made but little progress in this country, 
it is because the raw material has been grown in 
but limited quantities. In many parts of the West, 
farmers have raised flax simply for the seed, and 
thrown away the fibre as valueless, under the mis- 
taken idea that flax which produced seed could not 
be worked into line linen. In the Chicago market, 
hemp and flax seed are now sold at from three to 
Ave dollars per bushel. The Lockport (N. Y.) Flax 
Cotton Company have contracted with as many 
farmers of Niagara county as desired to do so, for 



262 

their crops of flax straw at $10 per ton. In Illinois, 
with heavy seeding, twenty bushels of seed and 
three tons of flax straw have been gathered from 
an acre. This was an extraordinary yield. The 
average crop in Niagara county, New York, in 1S62, 
was one ton of straw and fourteen bushels of seed 
to the acre. 

Much attention is directed to Southern Illinois, 
on account of its peculiar adaptation to fruit rais- 
ing. It has the advantage of early season, as well 
as a soil especially suited to the growing of fruits 
and vegetables, together with unequaled railroad 
facilities, by means of which the product is brought 
to the very door of all the great markets of the 
Northwest. Fruit placed upon the cars in the 
evening will reach Chicago the next morning. St. 
Louis is still nearer than Chicago ; and strawberries, 
tomatoes, &c, are supplied to Cincinnati nearly a 
fortnight in advance of the ripening of these luxu- 
ries in the immediate neighborhood of that city. It 
is the early market that gives the greatest profit to 
the fruit grower. Strawberries from Cobden and 
Makanda are placed in Chicago as early as the 14th 
of May. The Railroad Company supply every con- 
venience for transporting fruit to market. Cars 
are run with especial reference to this branch of 
traffic, and the time of running the trains is so ad- 
justed as best to suit the requirements of shippers. 
Southern Illinois has become the best fruit-growing 
region of America. While every part of Illinois is 
to some extent adapted to fruit culture, it is only in 
the southern part of the State that all conditions 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 263 

are found in the highest perfection. Pears, apples, 
peaches, grapes, and strawberries, are produced in 
all abundance. During the last year, upwards of 
200,000 fruit trees were planted in orchards south 
of Centralia, within six miles of the railroad track : 
but no matter to what extent they may be multi- 
plied, the demand for fruit will always be in ad- 
vance of the capacity to furnish what is wanted. 

Pork packing has become an immense business 
in this State, the number of hogs packed in 1862 
amounting to 1,484,834 head, half a million in ex- 
cess of Ohio, which until the last year or two has 
stood first among the pork-producing States. The 
following table, giving the number of hogs packed 
in seven States in 1862, shows a wonderful result : 

Illinois 1,484,834 

Ohio 981,683 

Indiana 587,528 

Iowa 403,899 

Kentucky 130,920 

Wisconsin 196,745 

Missouri 284,011 

Total 4,069,620 

Illinois is the great stock-raising State of the coun- 
try — sending two thousand head of beef cattle a 
week to the ISTew York market. In the census re- 
turn of 1850 the live stock in Illinois had a valua- 
tion of $24,209,258, and in 1860 it had increased to 
$73,434,621 — only two States (New York and Penn- 
sylvania) exceeding that amount of value. The 
raising of stock for market has been the source of 
many fortunes in Illinois. The Company have large 



261 HOW TO GET A FAUM, 

tracts of land well adapted by nature to the raising 
of cattle, sheep, horses and mules — better adapted, 
indeed, than are the lands of almost any other State 
of the Union. During the jeav 1862, the Illinois 
Central Railroad brought to Chicago, from va- 
rious stations along the line, upwards of 30,000 
head of beef cattle, and about 10,000 sheep. Wool- 
growing is a branch of industry that cannot be 
overdone, and will inevitably be largely increased. 

The immense coal deposits of Illinois are worked 
at different points near the railroad, and thus the 
settlers are enabled to obtain fuel at the very cheap- 
est rate. Du Quoin and St. John in Southern Illi- 
nois, and La Salle, are the principal places from, 
which coal is distributed. The statistics of coal 
produced in the United States for the year ending 
June 30, 1860, place Illinois third in the list of coal 
States — Pennsylvania being first, and Ohio second. 
In the period named, the coal mined in this State 
amounted to 14,906,643 bushels, valued at more 
than a million of dollars. The production at the 
present time is largely in excess of this amount. 

To whatever extent the resources of this State 
are developed, there can never be any very great 
accumulation of breadstuff's in this country. It is 
impossible for Europe to yield enough wheat for its 
three hundred millions of people, and the soundest 
writers upon the subject assert that even with the 
most favorable harvests, three-fourths of the popu- 
lation are inadequately fed. With cheap means of 
transportation to the shores of the Old World, it is 
believed that five hundred million bushels of bread- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 265 

stuffs would be annually purchased from the United 
States. But it is not alone to wheat and corn that 
the export trade is confined. In Illinois almost 
every thing that contributes to food for man is pro- 
duced in excess of the wants of the population, and 
finds a profitable market in the Eastern States and 
in Europe. 

As before stated, the price of the lands varies 
from seven to twelve dollars and upward per acre. 
The prairie lands, except in the immediate vicinity 
of towns and stations, are generally sold upon the 
" Long Credit Terms," i. e., payments of principal 
in four, five, six, and seven years, with interest 
annually in advance at the rate of six per cent. The 
timber lands in the southern part of the State, 
within three miles of the railroad, are sold upon 
what are known as " Canal Terms," i. e., one-fourth 
of the purchase money in cash, and the balance in 
one, two, and three years, with six per cent, interest 
each year in advance. The following examples 
illustrate the different terms : 



40 ACRES AT $10 PER ACRE— LONG CREDIT TERMS. 

Interest. Principal. 

Cash payment $24.00 

Payment in one year 24.00 

" two years 24.00 

" three years 24.00 

four years 18.00 $100.00 

five years 12.00 100.00 

six years 6.00 100.00 

' seven years 100.00 

12 



266 HOW TO GET A FARM 



40 ACRES AT $10 PER ACRE — CANAL TERMS. 

Interest. Principal. 

Cash payment $18.00 $100.00 

Payment in one year 12.00 100.00 

two years 6.00 100.00 

three years 100.00 



Thus, forty acres bought on the long credit sys- 
tem, if the credit is all used, will cost the buyer 
$132 for interest, and $400 for principal — a total of 
$532. If bought on canal terms, they would cost 
him $36 for interest, and $400 for principal — a total 
of $436. If bought for cash, the discount of twenty 
per cent, would reduce the cost to $320. 

Some years ago, Mr. John S. Barger bought five 
hundred and forty acres of the company's land for 
$1,513. He had two hundred and eighty acres pre- 
pared for seeding, and his gross income, the first 
year, amounted to $4,428, of which $1,210 was net 
profit. But to this should be added $1,094, the cost 
of making the farm, as it was not necessary to 
repeat the same work another year. Mr. B. had 
little more than a theoretical knowledge of farm- 
ing. 

Mr. William Waite purchased a prairie farm of 
eighty acres, in the spring of 1853, paying $4.50 
per acre. His land thus cost him $360 ; the fencing, 
$400, and the breaking up of sixty acres, $150 — a 
total of $910. None of these outlays would have to 
be repeated a second year. He marketed 2,100 
bushels of wheat and corn, producing him $1,545, 
leaving him a clear profit of $134, to which the 



AND WHERE TO FIND. ONE. 267 

$910 aforesaid should be added. In three years 
from the time Mr. Waite first broke up the prairie, 
his farm was worth $25 per acre. 

Every small capitalist who can command only 
$200 or $300, can quickly acquire a farm in this 
locality. At first he must put up a shanty of some 
kind in which to live, then a fence just high enough 
to turn cattle and horses, these being the only stock 
permitted to run at large. Then what is known as 
sod corn may be planted in May, and if the season 
be fair, it will yield him twenty to forty bushels per 
acre. The planting is done by striking an axe or 
spade between the layers of sod, and after dropping 
the corn, applying the heel of the boot freely. It 
needs no culture whatever. A man with two horses 
can ordinarily attend to thirty or forty acres of reg- 
ular corn land, one ploughing being sufficient. 
Wheat follows the corn crop. An industrious man 
can manage eighty acres, by having help at seed- 
time and harvest. 

Mr. W. R. Harris began in 1847 with a capital of 
$700. He bought one hundred and eighty acres of 
timber and prairie, of which he broke up fifty-five 
the first year, and at the end of the fourth year had 
one hundred and fifteen under the plough. The 
annual product was $2,000 in cash. At the end of 
six years, Mr. Harris's capital of $700 had increased 
to $8,000. 

These settlers on the prairie are not subjected to 
the inconveniences that many will suppose insepara- 
ble from a pioneer life. Such as they may be, the 
robust and thorough-going man will not regard with 



268 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

apprehension. A very neat little house, sixteen by 
twenty-four feet, a story and a half high, containing 
five rooms, is furnished and delivered on the cars for 
about $200. When within one hundred and fifty 
miles of Chicago, it is put up, plastered, painted, 
and made ready for occupancy for $350. There are 
regular manufactories of these portable houses, at 
which they can be purchased ready made, and the 
settler fitted out without delay. 

But the great West is full of instances like the 
foregoing. It is true that there have been disastrous 
failures. Whoever goes there must make up his 
mind to dispense with some of the comforts and 
conveniences to which he may have been accus- 
tomed. If without capital, he should avoid hanging 
round the towns, but strike directly for the country, 
where labor is in demand at paying rates. When 
able to buy a team, to fence his farm, and pay for a 
cheap dwelling, then he may safely purchase land. 
Let him avoid grasping after too many acres at first. 
The great rock on which many have split is that of 
seeking to own greater tracts than they can either 
manage or pay for. Three years of working out 
will enable a man to save money enough to make a 
safe beginning. His first crop of sod corn, with a 
little money, will carry him through the first year, 
and the second year his land will be mellow enough 
to bring him a crop of double value. 

The Central Railroad Company have given no 
encouragement to speculators, few of whom are 
either permanent or improving owners. Their effort 
has been to secure the actual settler by offering him 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 269 

extraordinary inducements, for it is he whose labors 
enhance the value of the neighboring lands, and 
contribute to the traffic of the road. The good 
effects of this policy have long been apparent. More 
than a hundred cities and villages now line the rail- 
road, with populations varying from 200 to 10,000 
or more, having factories, mills, stores, postoffices, 
schools, churches, and newspapers. They rapidly 
increase in numbers and wealth, distributing the 
comforts and luxuries of civilized life to the settlers, 
while they open up unlimited opportunities for pro- 
fitable employment to the business man, the trader, 
and mechanic. 

Other western States afford diversified openings 
for all classes of enterprising men, whether rich or 
poor. Kansas has some thirty thousand farms 
already hewed out of the forest and prairie, on which, 
at least ten millions of dollars have been invested. 
Some of her towns have grown up as in a single 
night. Leavenworth expanded, in three years, from 
a population of 100 to 8,000, with eight newspapers. 
All the towns of Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
Minnesota, are growing rapidly. The immigrant 
can find a farm under the Homestead Law, let him 
look in what direction he may. 

Missouri has been extensively settled by colonies 
of German wine-growers. These form communities 
by themselves, who are covering the hillsides with 
vineyards, and have already had remunerating vint- 
ages, their wine carrying off the premium at Cincin- 
nati, and coming everywhere into demand. The 
single town of Hermann, with less than 2,000 inhab- 



270 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

itants, produced in one season 80,000 gallons. A 
vineyard of three to four years old yields the owner 
two hundred and fifty to three hundred gallons per 
acre, while a very favorable site has yielded 1,000. 
One industrious man manages five acres ; and as 
the wine sells for $1.25 to $1.50 per gallon, five 
acres are sufficient to secure an ample subsistence. 
The climate is more favorable to vine growing than 
that of Germany. The German population detests 
slavery. Now that it has been swept from the soil 
of Missouri, immigrants are pouring in with every 
arrival, lands are rising in value, and the Home- 
stead Law is providing thousands of them with per- 
manent homes. 

Further west, the territories contain millions of 
acres of the public domain, all open to settlement 
by whomsoever chooses to locate upon them. How 
vast the quantity is, and where situated, will be 
seen by the following table of acres : 

California 94,000,000 

Dakota 83,000,000 

Nevada 50,000,000 

Colorado 66,000,000 

New Mexico 72,000,000 

Arizona 80,000,000 

Utah '62,000,000 

Oregon 55,000,000 

Idaho 203,000,000 

Washington 38,000,000 

Nebraska 43,000,000 

Kansas 45,000,000 

These figures are an approximation to the true 
amounts, which in all cases are understated. 



AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 271 



CHAPTER XII. 

Land in the South — Effect of civil war on titles — Progress and 
results of Pacification — Openings in Louisiana, South Carolina, 
and Virginia — Great demand for Labor — Cotton Growing — 
Society after the War. 

While the eyes of thousands have for years been 
directed westward, in search of homes, the slave- 
holders' rebellion has opened up in that region a 
new field for enterprising and adventurous spirits 
from the North and West. 

It is a peculiarity of civil war to unsettle or de- 
stroy the titles to real estate. A foreign war, even 
when attended by invasion, produces no such result. 
When the British overran our northwestern frontier, 
destroyed Buffalo and other settlements on the 
Lakes, though personal property was carried off, and 
houses burned, yet the title to real estate was unim- 
paired. When they landed on the Chesapeake, 
sacking Washington and Havre de Grace, holding 
a possession that was but feebly disputed except at 
Baltimore, it was personal property alone that 
changed owners. If the people abandoned their 
domicils as the enemy approached, they returned to 
them as he retired. No interlopers having occupied 
them during their absence, there were none to set 
up claim to title by possession. The flight of loyal 



272 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

people under such circumstances worked no civil 
disability. What they suffered was simply a mis- 
fortune of invasion. If the enemy had temporarily 
deprived them of their rights, holding them for the 
moment in abeyance, yet when he retreated they 
immediately revived. 

But it was not so during the revolutionary con- 
test. That was so emphatically a civil war, that in 
every State there were two parties in arms against 
each other. One party fought for American inde- 
pendence, the other for British supremacy, but both 
were composed of native-born citizens. One was 
aided by the presence of a British army, the other 
depended on itself. Had the American people been 
unanimous in their opposition to Great Britain, it 
would not have been a civil war, neither could it 
have been so long maintained against them. But 
citizen being arrayed against citizen, gave to it a 
mixed character — it was foreign and civil war com- 
bined. To fight for independence was held to be 
loyal, to oppose it was held to be disloyal. 

Those who opposed it were universally known as 
Tories. Many of them had been office-holders under 
the king ; many of them belonged to the highest 
classes of society; many were educated, talented, 
and wealthy ; while the fact cannot be disputed, 
that Toryism was so prevalent that it furnished more 
armed men to assist in crushing independence, than 
the Continental army was able to muster for main- 
taining it. As the Whigs of the Kevolution staked 
their all upon the issue of the contest, the Tories 
necessarily assumed a like hazard. Many of the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 273 

latter withdrew from the country at the beginning 
of the contest, carrying with them their personal 
effects, but abandoning their real estate. Society 
was already so disorganized, the future was so un- 
certain, and money was so universally hoarded, that 
more were desirous of selling than of buying. 
Titles had already become uncertain. As the war 
progressed, the condition of things became worse. 
Each State enacted confiscation laws designed to 
cripple the Tories by stripping them of their prop- 
erty. They abandoned lands and houses precisely 
as the Rebels have been abandoning theirs, and 
thousands of them never returned to reclaim their 
possessions. As the American armies advanced, the 
Tories fled ; when the British army moved, others 
were induced by fear to follow it. The fugitives 
had no rest. So large a quantity of their real estate 
was thus brought within reach of the confiscation 
acts that much of it was overlooked and escaped 
condemnation and sale. 

As the cities and their vicinity had been crowded 
with Tories, so in those localities their abandoned 
property abounded. Some of them had been killed 
in battle, others had fled the country, and dare not 
return to reclaim what they had left. The few who 
ventured to do so were again compelled to fly. In 
multitudes of cases even the voluntary absentees 
failed to return and resume possession. Titles thus 
became unsettled. Their properties were entered 
on by squatters, who eventually gained good titles 
by long possession. Property of this description is 
found in all our seaboard cities. Some of it has 

12* 



274 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

been thus taken out of its neutral status within a 
very few years. There are also ground rents which 
have not been demanded since the first outbreak of 
the Revolution. Other estates, liable to confisca- 
tion, but overlooked at the time, have been squatted 
on and held until title came of possession. So val- 
uable had some of these become, and so numerous 
were they in some localities, that sharp lawyers, 
who devoted themselves to unearthing the secrets of 
a past era, have grown rich by levying contributions 
from those who held them in possession, as the price 
of undisturbed ownership. 

These are invariable incidents of civil war. The 
rich traitor knows beforehand that confiscation of 
his wealth will be the penalty of his treason. When 
our population was barely three millions, of whom 
say only half were hostile to the Government, if 
civil war resulted so to disloyal owners of real prop- 
erty, what will be the uncertainty and misery among 
a population nearly six times as large, whose defiant 
boast has been that they are all traitors ? Thous- 
ands of them are now passing through the same 
furnace which consumed the Tories. Like them, 
having staked all, they have lost all, and are now 
fugitives in the earth. Others will unquestionably 
enter into their possessions, the loyal succeeding the 
disloyal precisely as they did in the last century. 
The old uncertainties of title may be cured by the 
action of a Government which seems alive to the 
necessities of the case. This, if done promptly, will 
hurry on pacification. 

As aforetime, squatting will be practiced every- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 275 

where, and in the absence of healing legislation, 
time will confer title. Owners have disappeared, 
some killed in battle, some fugitives, others outlawed. 
Families have been scattered, while others must 
have perished bodily. Entire States have been 
made a desolation. Offices of record have been 
sacked and burned, their parchment contents de- 
stroyed or scattered beyond hope of recovery. 
Trunks full of deeds and wills have gone into the 
camp fire, or been distributed as military trophies. 
Fences have been demolished, corner trees cut down, 
and boundary lines so effectually obliterated, that 
even the fugitive owners would find it difficult to 
retrace them, while strangers would find it impos- 
sible to do so. The future is full of embarrassment 
to all titles thus circumstanced. No such wholesale 
exodus of people occurred anywhere during the 
Revolution, nor were the armies of thaf period large 
enough to produce a tithe of the havoc. The South 
will thus abound in vacant places which their ban- 
ished owners dare not return to occupy. The North 
will rush in to fill them, converting its liberating 
army into an army of occupation. Into the remain- 
ing masses it will infuse new life, new morals, a 
wholesale education. The sluggards of the South 
will rise slowly from the depths in which they have 
been wallowing, conceding to the North, by the 
logic of events, her true position, that of the ascend- 
ant. Subjugated by Northern arms, she will vol- 
untarily acknowledge a new subjugation to Northern 
mind. 

Every Federal army which traverses the Southern 



276 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

States may be said to be an army of land survey- 
ors. The soldiers see for themselves that the trait- 
orous owners of vast plantations have abandoned 
them, that repossession is impossible, and that they 
must fall into new hands. In some cases this change 
of ownership will be caused by confiscation, in 
others by a hasty sale at ruinous sacrifice. In other 
cases the soldiers will acquire title by marriage. 
All these methods of transition came into active 
operation soon after the war began. The magnifi- 
cent climate of the rebellious region, the fertile hills 
and valleys, soon won the admiration of men whose 
homes had been among the bleak and rocky soil of 
New England, or the sparsely populated prairies of 
the West. Their long stay in that region made 
them familiar with its value, and there thousands 
have resolved to settle. With true Northern flexi- 
bility of character, they immediately became at 
home. Intercourse between loyal residents and the 
soldiers led to intimacy, and intimacy to marriage. 
Thousands of young volunteers have already mar- 
ried Southern women, and will settle in the South 
when peace is established. In a single company, as 
many as thirty such contracts have taken place. 
These marriages are not restricted to this or that 
regiment. Wherever the army has gone, there it 
has been greeted with sympathizers, and there such 
ties have been established. The longer it remained, 
and the further it advanced, the more numerous 
they became. In addition to marriages actually 
entered into, there will be innumerable engagements 
to be consummated on the return of peace. Officers 



AND WHEBE TO FIND ONE. 277 

as well as men have been equally ready to enter 
into like relations with Southern women. In the 
case of wealthy women, some have thus married as 
much to save their property as to secure a hus- 
band. 

How far this element of pacification has already 
progressed, may be seen by the following statement 
of an army correspondent of the Tribune. 

" I learn from the most undoubted sources, that in New 
Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, and in smaller places where 
we have permanent military posts, nothing has become 
more common than for our soldiers to marry the women of 
the country. At Memphis, from fifteen to twenty such 
marriages occur weekly. Let us look at this with the light 
which social science gives us. Naturally, men establish and 
live in society. Whatever may be their occupation — fight- 
ing, trading, or farming — they will associate in society, and 
the foundation of this is the family relation. Where oppor- 
tunity affords, no great length of time can pass in which 
society will not be organized. It is now from two to three 
years that we have held most of the places named, and, as 
a consequence, men without wives, and women without 
husbands, unite to form a new society, for the old one was, 
if not destroyed, greatly disrupted, and this, without regard 
to the fact that formerly they were bitterly opposed to each 
other. At first widows with large property and no one to 
attend to it, accepted Union husbands, hoping, and with good 
grounds, to save their wealth. I know of several young men 
of good qualities who thus have become rich. I know of one 
who in a month after marriage, sold $50,000 worth of cotton, 
which the widow for six months had tried to sell in vain. 
Other ladies, whose fathers and brothers were in the Rebel 
army, and had no homes, married; and now, some with 



278 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

fair means and good homes, and who also are well edu- 
cated, are proud of a gay officer for a husband. There has 
always been an idea among the women of the South that 
Northern men make the best husbands. "Whether this is 
true or not is doubtful, but it is certain that multitudes of 
our officers have every accomplishment, and are skilled in 
all the arts which attract women. In the ball-room, the 
parlor, or at promenade, they act the perfect gentlemen ; 
and if the subject of the discourse be literature, art, or phil- 
osophy, or even matters of practical life, they are ready to 
instruct or amuse. So long as we continue to possess the 
country these marriages will increase. It is evident from 
this that in a few years more, the Rebel soldiers will be for- 
gotten in the places where they were born, and should they 
return they will find, beside their houses and land being oc- 
cupied by others, that their women have become the wives 
of their enemies." 

But whether love or lucre be the motive, the 
effect on society in that region will be the same. 
An infusion of Northern sentiment of this whole- 
sale character will be the entering wedge to a sec- 
tional salvation. It will be driven home by subse- 
quent accessions of civilians of all professions — 
mechanics, merchants, traders, lawyers, doctors, 
speculators. The only true path to the supremacy 
of civilization is by thus setting free the land, and 
by planting a true democracy where the most 
brutalized form of landed aristocracy had been the 
only ruler. The latter suppressed education, the 
former will encourage and diffuse it. There will be 
" a man to every acre, with his right-hand full of 
brains, and a school-house behind him." 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 279 

Four years of such progression, even though all 
■were warlike, have already produced a stupendous 
revolution. Wherever pacification became assured, 
there agriculture, trade, and commerce, have re- 
vived. One Northern manufacturer has received 
orders from Louisiana for a thousand ploughs, three 
hundred farm wagons, as many carts, with harness 
for all, and quantities of tools for carpenters and 
blacksmiths. Others are crowded with orders from 
the same region. The makers of agricultural ma- 
chines, of cotton gins and presses, are equally over- 
run with orders. Sugar machinery and farm mills 
cannot be supplied as rapidly as they are wanted. 

These are but solitary indications of the astonish- 
ing prosperity which is sure to follow in the path of 
peace. In former times these products of northern 
workshops w T ere demanded by slaveholders. But 
the current of events has already changed — that 
class has disappeared, and a new race of owners 
and operators has pushed them from their seats. 
The orders now come from northern capitalists who 
have succeeded to the abandoned plantations, which 
they now conduct with great profit by paying to the 
liberated bondman a fair day's wages for a fair day's 
work. These openings in Louisiana are numerous, 
and of all dimensions, small as well as large. An 
army correspondent thus describes the country 
above New Orleans : 

" For a long distance the road runs in sight of, and but a 
few miles back from the Mississippi, and passes directly 
through magnificent sugar plantations — magnificent before 
the war, but now in many instances tenantless, fenceless, 



280 HOW TO GKT A FARM, 

and desolate. The mansions, surrounded with orange 
groves and with superb shade trees of the live-oak and the 
cypress, are still there, and the long rows of negro dwel- 
lings, far superior to the huts and cabins of Virginia and 
South Carolina, with their whitewashed sides still glisten 
in the sun, and look not unlike some neat little village on 
some Western prairie, clustered around the court-house 
square. Indeed, all of these plantations are so large, the 
mansions so princely, and the negro-houses so numerous, 
that as you whirl by them in the cars it is difficult to real- 
ize that you are not passing village after village as you 
would at the North. But the proud occupants of these 
princely estates are gone. What they look like as you pass 
by them in the cars, they are rapidly becoming. 

" New England farmers are making them New England 
villages. The schoolhouse and the church for the first time 
since these bayous were diked and these vast deltas re- 
claimed from the Father of Waters and the Gulf, are be- 
coming permanent institutions. In a few years where now 
you see but a platform alongside of the road for the accom- 
modation of the hogsheads of sugar and the bales of cotton 
— the crop of the planter through whose estate the road 
runs — villages will rise as numerous and thriving as along 
the great Central Road of Illinois. 

" Indeed, when this war is closed, and these great plan- 
tations are divided up and sold to the soldiers, the sailors, 
and the German emigrants who will flock to these southern 
States, Illinois, great as she is, and destined to be much 
greater, must look out for her laurels. Louisiana could 
and should have been the wealthiest State in the Union, 
and when northern industry and enterprise have drained 
all these swamps and diked all these bayous, no State in the 
Union can surpass her in the fertility of her soil or in the 
healthfulness of her climate." 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 281 

Even in South Carolina, where slavery was most 
despotic, white superintendence over paid black 
labor has yielded generous returns to northern capi- 
tal and enterprise. On thirteen estates at Beaufort, 
four hundred blacks were employed, rating two 
children as one hand, and the average wages paid 
them was fifty-five cents per day. With this help 
814 acres were planted with cotton, from which 
72,000 pounds of sea-island were obtained, worth 
$1.50 per pound, while the whole cost was only 
thirty-eight cents. The poor blacks themselves, 
when working their own little cotton fields, have 
lived better than at any former period of their lives, 
and saved money enough to purchase small farms. 
When domestic traitors charged that government 
was wasting millions of dollars in feeding what was 
said to be a lazy crowd of them at Port Royal, 
Congress instituted an inquiry, and the Secretary of 
the Treasury replied that there has been expended 
for agricultural implements, $77,081 ; for the pur- 
chase of the schooner Flora, $31,350 ; for white 
labor, $82,748 ; for colored labor, $34,527. Total 
expenses, $225,705. From this expenditure has 
been realized $726,984. Deducting the above ex- 
penses, there remained on hand from this fund 
$501,279. The Secretary says that no expenditure 
whatever has been made from the Treasury on ac- 
count of the cultivation of the plantations or the 
collection of cotton, or the educational or benevo- 
lent care of the laborers. More than half a million 
of dollars were saved by these operations. If the 
uneducated negro, just liberated from bondage, can 



BOW TO GET A FARM, 

perform these pecuniary wonders, and at the same 
time acquire a homestead of his own, how brilliant 
must be the prospect for the educated northern free- 
man ! 

It is thus evident that a new chapter is opening in 
the history of South Carolina. In 1860 rebellion 
defied the power of the Government. In less than 
three years the result of this defiance was manifest. 
The plantation despot became a fugitive. Over 
100,000 acres of the sea islands, out of the 19,336,320 
acres within the limits of the State, are being rapid- 
ly settled by soldiers, sailors, marines, negroes, and 
teachers who have resided in the Department of the 
South for six months. The lands have been put up 
at auction by the Federal Government for non-pay- 
ment of taxes, and were bought in by its representa- 
tives. They are now being re-sold to actual settlers 
at $1.25 per acre. Each unmarried man or woman 
can purchase twenty acres, and each head of a fam- 
ily can buy forty acres in addition. So far, some 
5,000 acres have been reserved for school purposes, 
and the dwellings on the portion sold have been ap- 
praised at their value, and will be held at that 
price ; the buyers of the soil can purchase the houses 
only by paying the proper value in addition to the 
$1.25 per acre for the land. There has been a great 
rush for the soil thrown open to loyal settlers, and 
as more of it is offered for sale the demand will 
increase. A writer on the spot, describing the sale, 
Bays : 

" It is rather a matter for editorial comment than mere 
correspondence, that the effect will be to inaugurate the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 283 

pacification of the country wrested from rebels and added 
to the domain of the Union. The difficulties which our 
armies have experienced during the progress of war among 
hostile populations will, in this department, be prepared for 
the secessionists, should they ever return to the sea islands. 
After men have paid for land, and begin its cultivation, 
they believe it to be truly theirs, and they will fight to de- 
fend their rights of ownership. Planting will immediately 
follow the occupation of lands. Thus a new population of 
workingmen, white and negro, will take possession of the 
territory abandoned by the secessionists. Industry and 
production will follow closely the armies in the field. Every 
owner of twenty or forty acres, having bought and paid in 
part at least for his homestead, will feel that he has an 
interest in his country. The exhaustion of the productive 
forces that usually remains as the worst evil of a state of 
war, and that brings with peace a mere syncope of national 
vitality, will be hereby obviated. The negro population of 
the sea islands is about 18,000, of whom one-fifth are eligi- 
ble to pre-empt. In addition to these, the soldiers, sailors, 
and civilians who are likely to claim land are numerous. 
It is believed that under the new xule very little land will 
be left unoccupied. Deeds for lands pre-empted will not 
be given until the process of cultivation has begun, to prove 
the good faith of the persons proposing to buy it. Under 
the guidance of their friends the former cultivators of the 
soil are staking off their claims. Whole plantations are 
being settled by families of owners formerly slaves upon the 
same estates. Generally, the former superintendents of 
plantations are preparing to settle among their late pupils 
and subordinate laborers. The place is thrown open to 
immigration and settlement. At this time, furniture, 
household utensils, farmers' and mechanics' tools, strong, 
durable clothing and materials for the wear of both sexes, 



284: now to get a farm, 

hardware, and nearly all other useful merchandise suitable 
to the wants of a new country, are in great demand among 
all classes at good prices for cash." 

As regards that portion of Virginia east of the 
mountains, the whole region has been made a des- 
olation. Politics and slavery have combined to 
precipitate rebellion, and rebellion has made it the 
tramping ground of armies which have eaten out 
everything but the soil. Every gift of nature 
seemed to have been lavished on this favorite re- 
gion — it has an unequalled climate, rivers, coal, 
and every valuable mineral. But these advantages 
were thrown away. Virginia employed herself in 
making Presidents, while New York employed her- 
self in making canals. Virginia was engaged every 
year in reaffirming the resolutions of '98 and '99, 
while New York was passing resolutions to build 
the Erie Canal — not only passing them, but carry- 
ing them out. Virginia was employed in setting 
the machinery of the Federal government in motion, 
while New York was taxing her colossal energies 
to start the wheels of commerce. This tells the 
whole story, and illustrates the superior utility of 
industrial enterprise over a too long continued de- 
votion to mere political abstractions. 

Separated now, the new State of West Virginia, 
begotten by loyalty from disloyalty, is thus far, in 
its most prominent features, singularly unlike that 
of the righteously desolated Old Dominion. The 
new State is founded upon free labor as opposed to 
slavery. In that fact alone, she places enterprise, 
intelligence, skill and forethought, in opposition to 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 285 

their antagonistic elements. Her soil is rich and 
fertile, as opposed to lands which have been cropped 
to the last stage of exhaustion by a never-ceasing 
and never-compensated harvest of tobacco. She 
has a clear and health-invigorating air, noble 
mountain-heights, and streams which leap out 
among them, inviting manufactures. The govern- 
ment is aiming for the greatest good of the greatest 
number. 

Nothing short of a high prosperity was to be 
expected from conditions such as these. Thus, 
after disbursing nearly $100,000 since June, 1863, 
with one half the counties paying no tax whatever, 
and only a portion of the residue paying their full 
proportion, there was a balance in the treasury of 
more than double that amount. This astonishing 
result is evidence of high prosperity ; for if this 
new State, " wrenched from the grasp of rebellion 
by military power, and growing on the very hem of 
civil war, can thus flourish under such circumstances, 
the restoration of peace and order will develop a 
prosperity surpassing all that has been writ- 
ten in the history of its ill-starred and traitorous 
parent." 

All through the Southern States there will be in- 
numerable openings for Northern enterprise, whether 
the adventurers be farmers or mechanics. White 
labor will be as urgently needed as that of the 
blacks. The South must continue to grow cotton, 
rice, sugar, and tobacco, as aforetime. The world 
needs these products, and is determined to have 
them. England has relied with pitiable helplessness 



286 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

upon the South for cotton, and France for the main- 
tenance of her stupendous monopoly of tobacco. 
They have long been chafing under the stoppage of 
their supplies, and to ensure an early resumption, 
will at the proper time advance capital without 
limit to the growers of free cotton. This infusion 
of new capital will stimulate and invigorate every 
department of business. More than this, the utter 
destitution of the South, in consequence of the war, 
will require the labor of more whites and negroes 
than she ever possessed, to repair the damages she 
has suffered. 

One half of Kentucky, all Virginia and Tennes- 
see, a large portion of Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, and Georgia, have been stripped clean of 
fencing. Others have suffered vast damage in the 
same way. When the reader is told that the fences 
in the single State of New York cost $144,000,000, 
he may form some estimate of what must be the 
demand for labor in the South, to make good this 
single item in the long catalogue of ravages com- 
mitted by invading armies. 

Houses, barns, outbuildings, factories, forges, 
bridges, have been destroyed by thousands. Other 
thousands have been stripped of doors, shutters, and 
siding, to feed the camp fire. In very many in- 
stances whole towns have been destroyed. More 
than half of Charleston lies in ruin. A vast rail- 
road system has been reduced to terrible disorder, 
and receiving no repairs, will cease to be operated. 
All these structures were the product of mechanical 
labor. No one can doubt that the South will in 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 287 

time recover from her desolation, and that these 
damages will be repaired. But to place her where 
she stood before the rebellion, will require enormous 
drafts on Northern industry, not only on that which 
may remain at home in the workshop, but on that 
which, to be effective, must migrate to the spot 
where the ruin exists. In addition to the huge 
effort of repairing this waste, there will be even 
more urgent demands for labor. Food must be 
grown with which to support life, and exportable 
products from the proceeds of which to purchase 
clothing, hardware, horses, tools, machinery, and 
the vast variety of comforts and necessaries which 
a blockade by sea and land had long excluded. 

Those who may be seeking for a farm, will be 
able in this region to find a hundred. It is doubt- 
ful if much capital will be required to secure one. 
The abandoned properties will be numerous, while 
of the owners who remain in possession, thousands 
will be found so impoverished and disheartened as 
to hail with joy the advent of a Northern coadjutor. 
It is help that they will need, not land. Of the 
former they will have too little, of the latter they 
have always had too much. Such, then, as think 
that they know how to get a farm, and who have no 
preference for remaining where they were born, will 
have little difficulty in finding one somewhere in 
the South. 

On this branch of the subject it will be in point 
to give the following letter from a prominent officer, 
dated at Goodrich's Landing, in the northeast dis- 
trict of Louisiana, under date of October, 1863, 



288 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

and addressed to the Hon. Henry T. Blow, of St. 
Louis : 

" I write to you as my friend and as a public man, taking 
interest in whatever concerns the public good. There is 
an immense gold field down here, and nobody appears to 
know it. I want it thrown open to the people, so the 
people can work in it. I refer to the many abandoned 
plantations from Helena, Arkansas, to Natchez, Louisiana. 
The owners, most of them, have fled with their negroes to 
Texas and elsewhere, leaving land that should be occupied. 

"During this year, some of the plantations have been 
worked by Northern men, by hiring negro labor. But few 
leases were given, as it was late in the season when the idea 
of cultivation was thought of. Three commissioners were 
appointed by General Thomas, who gave the leases. The 
plan was the best that could be adopted on the spur of the 
moment. * 

" What leases were given expire in February next, and 
then I want to see a large laboring population from the 
North come down here and fill up the country. I lived at 
Fort Kearney during two gold excitements. One was Cal- 
ifornia, the other Pike's Peak. I saw the great numbers 
of people that moved there to dig for gold. The gold got 
there was nothing to what can be made by coming to this 
country. Let the prospect be advertised in the newspapers 
of the West, that every man coming down here can have 
80 or 200 acres of cotton land, according to his means for 
working it, to work for one year. Two hundred acres of 
land means 200 bales of cotton, the net price of which, in 
New York, will be $40,000. If 80 acres, it will be $16,000. 
With hired labor, cotton can be raised at 5 cents per pound, 
which gives a profit of 45 cents per pound net. No farmer 
of the North ever dreamed of such profit ; and if the ad- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 289 

vantages of coming here were known, they would flock 
down here by thousands. 

" This matter should be brought to the notice of the 
Government. / want the man of moderate means, our 
Western laborers, here. They will be a militia to take 
care of the country, and our troops can go elsewhere. The 
persons who cultivate the next cotton crop are the ones who 
ivill buy the land here. Shall this land be distributed and 
owned in small tracts ? For the good of the slaves freed 
by Mr. Lincoln's proclamation I wish it ; for to a great ex- 
tent the ground will be tilled by their labor, and I want a 
large population of white people here, so their labor will be 
in demand and respected, and combinations of a few cap- 
italists cannot be made against them. We have uprooted 
one aristocracy here ; let us not establish by our own act 
one of another kind. 

" The question of title to the land must not make timid 
a man who is thinking to come here. The cultivation of 
one year is enough to induce him to come. A man that 
takes only 80 acres can go back home at the end of the 
year with at least $8,000 in his pocket. Would he make 
one-tenth that by staying at home ? See what you can do 
towards sending the thousands to our gold fields, and lo- 
cating a large population on the banks of the Mississippi 
river. Any man who has seen the emigrants going to Cal- 
ifornia and Pike's Peak knows the inducements and recom- 
mendations for coming here. Every officer I have spoken 
to on the subject favors it. Those who want to plant 
largely, and be the future aristocrats here, oppose it. Now 
is the time to change the destiny of this country. I hope 
you will work favorably and immediately for it." 

It will not be doubted that, in multitudes of pri- 
vate circles, in parlor, counting-house, exchange, 
13 



290 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

and wherever men do mostly congregate, the ques- 
tion has been constantly debated as to what is to be 
the condition of the rebel States, and what the atti- 
tude of North and South, when this rebellion shall 
have been crushed. It is alleged that subjugation 
will be succeeded by a sullen and scowling submis- 
sion to the laws, a peace. in name only — that, under 
this novel dominion of the laws, the South will chafe 
and fret, and be as intractable and malignant as 
ever. A real, hearty, lasting peace, a thorough fra- 
ternization, is predicted as impossible. Old associa- 
tions divided by the sword, are presumed to be 
beyond the hope of reunion. The nation, nominally 
compacted, will be in reality an enforced association 
of radically antagonistic elements, liable to be again 
convulsed by rebellion, and by this liability so 
weakened as to become dangerously open to foreign 
aggression. Constantly on guard against domestic 
treason, it will be impossible to combine against 
foreign attack. Intercourse between the sections 
will be greatly diminished — business between the 
two will never revive — old friendships will die out — 
no new ones will be established — and so general an 
estrangement must occur as to convert us perma- 
nently into two distinct and hostile communities. 

These are not such views as I either entertain or 
desire to express. I give them as the utterances of 
others ; and it may be added that, while they are 
peculiar to one class of thinkers, they are in direct 
conflict with those of another class, whose habits of 
thought and action entitle their opinions to be re- 
ceived with equal deference. Between the two, let 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 291 

history and experience decide. The annals of 
almost every nation are luminous with instruction 
touching the finale of such a crisis as this, because 
all governments have been subject to similar con- 
vulsions. Rebellion seems to be a chronic infirmity 
of nations. None have escaped it ; many have re- 
peatedly experienced it ; most of them have sur- 
vived it. It involves the single certainty that some- 
how, and at some time, it must come to an end. 
As we know how other rebellions have ended, we 
may infer results as likely to succeed the termina- 
tion of this. I grant that the long smothered but 
fierce heartburnings which precede and precipitate 
them, are not, have never been, and cannot be im- 
mediately forgotten. In some instances, they have 
been wholly obliterated in a single generation. In 
others, they have survived for ages. Scotland has 
no scowl for England now, notwithstanding the 
murderous outbreak a century ago, and the equally 
bloody war of the roses no longer lives in personal 
animosities; yet Ireland continues sullen and un- 
tamable. Even the Reign of Terror survives only 
in Parisian history. But the desolation of modern 
Greece remains fresh in the public memory, because 
the family of Bozzaris still exists. 

Our own history, however, furnishes abundant 
illustrations of how rebellions end. They are of 
greater significance, too, because occurring among 
ourselves. What the past has done for us we may 
feel assured the future will accomplish. The Revo- 
lutionary war closed with the withdrawal of the 
British armies from our shores and the breaking up 



292 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

of the very foundations of the vast Tory society 
whose opposition had greatly increased the horrors 
of the contest, as well as prolonged it. These do- 
mestic enemies were resolutely refused either pro- 
tection, indemnity, or even immunity, by the treaty 
of peace, whose terms were dictated by our commis- 
sioners. The public exasperation against them was 
deep and universal. No act of oblivion was passed 
by any of the States, but banishment and confisca- 
tion was the rule. The leaders became fugitives 
and beggars. Even the rank and file fared but lit- 
tle better. As many of the former as the British 
fleets could carry away, sailed with the troops for 
England. The vast remainder, thus abandoned by 
England, fled the country from every outlet by 
which they could escape. The southern Tories 
sought refuge in Bermuda and the West Indies. 
Those in the middle and northern States escaped to 
Canada and Nova Scotia, where they settled in 
numbers so large as to give to British power in 
those regions its first successful momentum. The 
breaking up of families by this terrible exodus occa- 
sioned indescribable suffering. Thousands fled from 
rich homesteads and ample means, carrying with 
them little else than the clothes upon their backs, 
losing all they possessed, and being refused permis- 
sion to return. The less active Tories, the mere 
sympathizers, who secretly desired the British to 
succeed, just as the sympathizing traitors of the 
present day desire the rebellion to triumph, re- 
mained in the country. But they lived despised 
and hated. Honest men shunned them, and society 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 293 

spewed them out. Many, unable to live under an 
intolerable odium, abandoned locations where they 
were known as Tories, and sought new homes among 
strangers. The breaking up of families from this 
cause occasioned widespread suffering. The numer- 
ous gangs of marauding Tories, now represented by 
the rebel guerrillas, were forced to quit the neigh- 
borhoods they had desolated, the people whom they 
had outraged executing the task with sanguinary 
thoroughness. 

The rebellions which succeeded the Revolution 
were mere military episodes, though at times pre- 
senting an alarming front to the then feeble authori- 
ties. Shay's rebellion ended with the dispersion of 
his followers, the flight, capture, and pardon of its 
leaders, with an amnesty to the rank and file on re- 
turning to their allegiance. The more formidable 
Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania ended quite 
as ignominiously to its instigators. As in the case 
of Shay's, that outbreak was fomented by a single 
demagogue, who, fluent of speech and reckless of 
results, traversed the country and roused the people 
to arms. He in turn became a fugitive, with multi- 
tudes of his followers. Others were ruined pecuni- 
arily, while two were condemned and sentenced to 
death for treason, though subsequently pardoned, 
while a proclamation of amnesty secured a general 
pacification. The leaders banished, the masses were 
forgiven. In Dorr's rebellion the same general facts 
and consequences are prominently visible. But 
neither of these insurrections developed the murder- 
ous hatred which marked the contest between Whig 



294 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

and Tory, or the still more bloodthirsty virus with 
which the Slaveholders' Rebellion has shocked the 
world. Yet time, the great pacificator, has obliter- 
ated all the bitter feeling which these half-forgotten 
contests engendered. With the death of the genera- 
tions that shared in them, it passed away ; and the 
little of it that still survives exists only in the hand- 
ful of veterans who yet lag superfluous on the stage 
of life. 

Thus the thick-coming future must be conjectured 
from the clearly defined past. As all rebellions 
come to an end, so will the present one. The nation 
will be no more likely to tolerate its bloodstained 
instigators within its bosom than our fathers toler- 
ated the masses of the less guilty Tories. Though 
this government has never executed a man for trea- 
son, yet it will seem to many that the gallows may 
now come actively into use. Flight or the halter 
will be the only alternative for leading traitors whose 
hands are dripping with loyal blood. The former 
will expatriate thousands. That secured, the na- 
tional horizon will be comparatively clear, and 
amnesty for the masses will develop the germs of a 
pacification. 

But it must be evident that time alone can make 
it complete and permanent. Our habits as a people, 
we know, will go far to hasten in the new millen- 
ium. Commerce and trade, the modern humaniz- 
ers, will rapidly reopen every channel now obstruct- 
ed. Collision of the scales and yardstick will abrade 
a multitude of asperities, for with too many of us 
the dollar is the only divinity to be worshipped. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 295 

The nations of Europe which, six years ago, were 
waging war against each other, have all recovered 
their commercial equilibrium. Southern destitution 
of a thousand comforts and necessities will compel 
a grateful recognition of Northern abundance. A 
vast railroad system, telegraphs, and steamers, cre- 
ated for the promotion of intercourse between the 
sections, will be actively engaged in facilitating that 
intercourse. The arrogance of Southern temper will 
be modified under the subduing knowledge that its 
chivalry has been soundly whipped by Northern 
mudsills. Opinion, both printed and spoken, will 
be free — for Northern colonization will pour in with 
schools and ploughs, educating a hitherto benighted 
people, and redeeming an almost ruined agriculture 
by placing the manufacturer side by side with the 
producer. This intercourse will rapidly teach the 
South how grossly her banished demagogues have 
deceived her as to the design and purpose of the 
North; and, though humbled by subjugation, she 
will discover that her prosperity is becoming greater 
than ever. 

But it is idle to presume that the griefs, the pas- 
sions, the fierce animosities, engendered by this 
awful contest, will die out while this generation 
lives. Too many brave men have perished, too 
many homes have been made desolate, too many 
families have been broken up and beggared for that. 
Men whom it has impoverished will live and die 
poor, remembering constantly the causes of their 
poverty. Widows will weep over husbands, children 
over fathers, slain in battle. No catalogue of griefs 



296 

and horrors could be longer or blacker. These 
things must be identical with those which closed up 
the Revolution, only ten times magnified. In those 
Southern States where loyal men have been out- 
raged by their neighbors, the latter will doubtless 
be exterminated or driven off by those w%om they 
have persecuted. Blood for blood will be the rule 
with them. Here, in the North, every local traitor 
will be marked. Good men will shun him, honest 
men refuse to trust him, society will keep him at 
arm's length. His generation will never cease to 
remember that he was a traitor. The status of 
these is defined already. Thus history reproduces 
itself, and we are living witnesses of the instructive 
truth. 

But underlying and overshadowing these general 
facts, there remains the great question of American 
slavery. In all former contests, both foreign and 
domestic, slavery was passive or incidental. In this, 
it is confessedly supreme, the sole animating cause 
of rebellion, giving it impulse at the beginning and 
vitality during its progress. Had it been struck 
down at the outset, the rebellion would have been 
brief and far less sanguinary. There has been no 
pacification during sixty years of its aggressive ex- 
istence — there can be none so long as it may be con- 
tinued. It has the nation by the throat, and the 
nation must have the courage to shake it off and 
destroy it. I have shown how other rebellions have 
ended, but it is only by universal emancipation that 
this one ought to be crushed. 

Yet even while the war was being waged, the 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 297 

South was stretching forth her hands for Northern 
wares and merchandise. While willing to fight, 
she was even more anxious to trade. From the first 
gun at Sumter, every lying trick that treason could 
devise has been practised to smuggle into the South 
the procfucts of Northern workshops. A perjury 
was regarded as commendable that secured the ad- 
mission of a handful of percussion caps. No false 
swearing was too black to obtain an ounce of quin- 
ine. The dearth of Northern products compelled 
Southern women to remain at home or go abroad in 
meaner stuffs than are worn by paupers in a North- 
ern almshouse. Every intercepted letter of a 
Southern woman called for clothing as a necessity, 
pins and needles as blessings, and bonnets as the 
greatest of mercies ! 

With necessities thus embracing every depart- 
ment of human society, it will be impossible for the 
South to stand aloof from the North. Agriculture, 
trade, and commerce, will be greater necessities with 
her than ever. Her people are now impoverished, 
and they must begin life anew. As this grasping 
after Northern products prevailed during the con- 
test wherever there was hope of its being gratified, 
so will it become stronger and more general with 
peace. Trade of all descriptions will immediately 
revive. War has fulfilled its mission — her people 
have had enough of it, and the old antagonism on 
the slavery question will no longer disturb what will 
soon become a general harmony of interests. Com- 
merce will compel a thorough and lasting fraterniz- 
ation. The South will be far safer for Northern 
13* 



298 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

emigrants than it has been, during three years, for 
natives of her soil. 

The quantity of land to change owners and be 
settled up is almost incredible. In Virginia alone, 
according to Judge Underwood, there are more than 
two hundred million dollars' worth of property, 
chiefly real estate, which ought to be confiscated. 
Thousands of acres have already been sold to 
Northern purchasers. "These States," says Mr. 
Julian, " constitute one of the fairest portions of the 
globe. They are larger in area than all the free 
States of the North. They have a sea and gulf 
coast of more than six thousand miles in extent, and 
are drained by more than fifty navigable rivers, 
which are never closed to navigation by the rigor of 
the climate. They have at least as rich a soil as the 
States of the North, yielding great wealth-producing 
staples peculiar to them, and two or three crops in 
the year. They have a finer climate, and their agri- 
cultural, manufacturing, and commercial advan- 
tages, are decidedly superior. Their geographical 
position is better, as respects the great commercial 
centres of the world. The institution of slavery, 
which has so long curse,d these regions by excluding 
emigration, degrading labor, and impoverishing the 
soil, will very soon be expelled. The cry which al- 
ready comes up from these lands is for free laborers. 
If we offer them free homesteads, and protect their 
rights, they will come. John Bright, in a recent 
speech at Birmingham, estimates that within the 
past year 150,000 people have sailed from England 
to New York. Let it be settled that slavery is dead, 



AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 299 

and that the estates of traitors in the South can be 
had under the provisions of the Homestead law, 
and foreign immigration will be quadrupled, if not 
augmented ten fold. Millions in the Old World, 
hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of 
free institutions, will nock to the sunny South, and 
mingle there with the swarms of our own people in 
the pursuit of new homes under kindlier skies. Im- 
migration has not slackened, even during this war, 
and in determining the direction it will take, it must 
be remembered that settlements have very nearly 
reached their limits in the North and West. Kansas 
and Nebraska are border States, and must so con- 
tinue. Their storms, and droughts, and desert 
plains, give a pretty distinct hint that the emigrant 
must seek his Eldorado in latitudes further South. 
In the new northwestern States the richest lands 
have been purchased, and vast portions of them 
locked up by speculators. Their distance from the 
great markets for their produce, and their severe 
winters, will also check emigration in that direction, 
and incline it further South, if lands can be pro- 
cured there with tolerable facility. The rebel States 
not only abound in cheap and fertile land, with 
cheap labor in the persons of the freedmen to assist 
in its cultivation, but they possess great mineral re- 
sources. They have also extensive lines of railroads, 
which, in connection with their great rivers, bring 
almost every portion of their territory into com- 
munication with the sea." 

With slavery extinct, and peace restored, then, in 
the eloquent language of Solicitor Whiting, "the 



300 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

hills and valleys of the South, purified and purged 
of all the guilt of the past, clothed with a new and 
richer verdure, will lift up theif voices in thanks- 
giving to the Author of all good, who has granted 
to them, amidst the agonies of civil war, a new 
birth and a glorious transfiguration. Then, the 
people of the North and the people of the South, 
will again become one people , united in interests, in 
pursuits, in intelligence, in religion, and in patriotic 
devotion to our common country." 

No one who has not visited Virginia since her 
desolation came upon her, can imagine how complete 
and terrible it has been. When the army first pen- 
etrated the country beyond Alexandria, it was as- 
serted that the corps of axe-men was so large that it 
levelled an acre of timber every ten minutes. But 
much of this East Virginia land had been rendered 
barren by a ruinous system of cultivation before in- 
vasion came. Farms were abandoned as worthless, 
and were sold at one to five dollars per acre. Yet 
there is no region in the Union containing finer 
land than this. It is near to Alexandria, Washing- 
ton, and Georgetown, cash markets in which all that 
a farmer can produce will sell at high prices. Its 
soil is capable of the highest improvement at a 
moderate cost, as was proved by numerous Northern 
farmers who settled there previous to the rebellion. 
They made it yield 40 bushels of wheat and 100 of 
corn to the acre, and raised the market value of 
their farms from $5 to $60. All these now deso- 
lated and abandoned lands must change owners. 
They can be purchased at extremely low figures. 



AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE, 301 

Their location and advantages are so superior, that 
of all the rebellious soil of the Southern States, 
these will probably be first purchased and redeemed 
by Northern farmers. Such of them as settled 
there before the rebellion were rapidly becoming 
rich. The chances for those who may settle there 
hereafter will be infinitely better. 



302 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Many kinds of Farmers — Women managing Farms — Very Small 
Ones — Eleven Acres — A Two-acre Farm — The Spade and the 
Fork — A Single Acre — Heads better than Hands — Help Your 
self. 

There are all classes of farmers, the sick and the 
well, the sound and the cripple, women as well as 
men. Some are cultivating their thousands of acres, 
using the steam-engine as a ploughman ; others are 
contented on a single acre, depending on the spade 
and hoe. Yet all seem to live. That they continue 
to do so is presumptive evidence of intrinsic good- 
ness in the occupation, or that, if a poor one, they 
manage it so prudently as to make it a paying one. 
Some of them have been suddenly placed in charge 
of a farm, with no previous knowledge of the busi- 
ness, yet have done well. Thus some men may be 
said to be born farmers, as others have been born 
generals. 

It is related by an agricultural journal, that an 
eminent London tradesman had married the daugh- 
ter of a farmer who held three hundred acres near 
London, and who had acquired considerable proper- 
ty. The farmer having died, the widow carried on 
the farm, but after two or three years' experience 
discovered that she was losing money. The son-in- 
law was consulted as to what it was best to do. On 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 303 

looking over the farmer's old accounts, he found 
that the farm had paid well before his death, and 
knowing no reason why it should not still do so, 
under proper management, agreed to take the farm 
himself. He had been eminent as a gunsmith, and 
now commenced as an agriculturist. Knowing 
literally nothing of farming, he began by reading 
all the books and papers on the subject which fell in 
his way. He had not read far before he found that 
a knowledge of chemistry lay at the foundation of 
good husbandry. He therefore put himself under 
the tuition of an intelligent working chemist until 
he made himself a good practical chemist for agri- 
cultural purposes. He then applied this knowledge 
by adapting his manures to the quality of the soil 
and the nature of the crop he intended to raise 
from it. 

The result was that the neighbors, who began by 
ridiculing the " cockney farmer," and who prophe- 
sied his ruin in three years, were glad, at the end 
of that period, to go to him for advice about their 
crops. His own crops- of grain, hay, and roots, were 
the admiration of the whole country, and his wheat 
would often command more than the market price 
for seed. At the end of the fourth year, in making 
up his account, he found a balance of twelve hun- 
dred pounds in favor of the farm. Such was the 
result of science diligently acquired and judiciously 
applied ; and by such means, without any previous 
knowledge of the subject, did one who had been 
eminent as a tradesman become equally eminent as 
an agriculturist. 



304 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

A lady is now residing in New Jersey whose case 
is quite as remarkable. She was living with her aged 
father, on a farm encumbered with mortgages to its 
full value. He offered to convey it to any one of 
his children who would agree to keep him for the 
remainder of his life. All declined the offer except 
the daughter. Her husband was in feeble health, 
could be of no assistance, and died soon after. But 
she engaged resolutely in the work she had under- 
taken, grasped with surprising readiness the whole 
details of what, in the eyes of her neighbors, was a 
hopeless case, and went * on prosperously. There 
happened to be a large quantity of currant and 
gooseberry bushes on the place. She caused the 
fruit to be gathered, and converted it into excellent 
wine, for which she found ready sale in New York. 
Taking the hint from this, she enlarged her opera- 
tions another season by buying all the common wild 
blackberries and currants that were brought to her. 
The farm was in an isolated location, with no ready 
sale for perishable fruits ; but a market being thus 
established by her, supply followed demand. All 
the children for miles around took to picking black- 
berries, and the quantities offered to her were im- 
mense. With characteristic energy she enlarged 
her facilities for handling them, and bought all that 
came, converting some into wine, some into syrup, 
and some into simple preserves. 

Meantime, her ordinary farming operations went 
on with unabated energy. Without doing any of 
the work herself, she saw that it was done thor- 
oughly and well. In her wine manufacture she 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 305 

was singularly successful. Her products obtained 
a high reputation, and all that she could make was 
readily disposed of. The business was profitable, as 
was shown by her making repeated payments 
toward freeing her farm from debt. When the 
great army demand for blackberry syrup sprung up 
in 1861, she supplied vast quantities at high prices. 
This demand increased yearly as the war continued, 
but she enlarged her supply, obtaining higher pri- 
ces each year, until, in 1864, after seven years of 
energetic devotion to her farm, she paid off the last 
dollar of the debt by which it had been encum- 
bered. This woman now owns an unhampered 
homestead, and is carrying on a highly profitable 
business, made up of items which the majority of 
cultivators consider of no commercial value. Hav- 
ing the sagacity to discover their availability, and 
the skill and energy to develope it, she has had an 
abundant reward. 

There are numerous cases of American women 
who have been, and who still are equally successful 
in the management of farms. In England, the de- 
votion of women to agricultural pursuits is even 
more general and thorough than with us. Mr. 
Holcomb, in his address before the Maryland State 
Agricultural Society, relates the following incident 
as showing the thorough knowledge possessed by 
some English women on these subjects. 

"I cannot but relate a casual interview I chanced to 
have with an English lady in going up in the train from 
London to York. Her husband had bought a book at the 



306 HOW TO 

stand as we were about starting, and remarked to her that 
it was one of her favorite American authors — Hawthorne. 
I casually observed that I was pleased to see that young 
American authors found admirers with English ladies, when 
the conversation turned on books and authors. But I said 
to myself pretty soon, 'this is a literary lady — probably 
her husband is an editor or reviewer, and she uses the 
scissors for him ; at all events, I must retreat from this 
discussion about authors, modern poets, and poetry. What 
should a farmer know critically of such things ? If I were 
only in those fields, if the conversation could be made to 
turn upon crops, or cattle, then I should feel quite at home.' 

" I finally pointed out a field of wheat, and remarked 
that it was very fine. The lady, carefully observing it, 
said, ' Sir, I think it is too thin — a common fault this sea- 
son — as the seeding was late. Those drills,' she added, 
turning to her husband for his confirmation, * cannot be 
more than ten inches apart, and you see the ground is not 
completely covered — twelve, and even fifteen inches, is now 
preferred for the width of drills, and two bushels of seed 
to the acre will then entirely cover the ground, on good 
land, so you can hardly distinguish the drills.' 

" If the goddess Ceres had appeared with her sheaf or 
cornucopia, I could not have been more taken by surprise. 
A lady descanting on the width of wheat drills, and the 
quantity of seed ! I will try her again — this may be a 
chance shot, and remarked in reference to a field of ploughed 
ground we were passing, that it broke up in great lumps, 
and could hardly be put in good tilth. * We have much 
clay land like this,' she replied, ' and formerly it was diffi- 
cult to cultivate it in a tillage crop, but since the introduc- 
tion of Crosskill's clod crusher, it will make the most 
beautiful tilth in these lands, which are now regarded as 
our best lands for wheat.' 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 307 

" Conversation turned on cattle — she spoke of the best 
breeds of cows for the pail, the Ayrshires and the Devons — 
told me where the best cheese was made — Cheshire ; the 
best butter — Ireland ; where the milk-maids were to be 
found — Wales. ' Oh,' said I, ' I was mistaken. This 
charming, intelligent woman, acting so natural and unaf- 
fected ; dressed so neatly and so very plainly, must be a 
farmer's wife, and what a help-mate he has in her ! She is 
not an extravagant wife, either — not an ornament about 
her — yes, a single bracelet clasps a fair, rounded arm — 
that's all.' 

" The train stopped at York. No sooner had my trav- 
elling companions stepped upon the platform than they 
were surrounded by half a dozen servants, men and maids, 
the men in full livery. It turned out to be Sir John and 
Lady H. This gentleman was one of the largest landed 
proprietors in Berkshire, aud his lady the daughter of a 
nobleman, a peeress in her own right ; but her title added 
nothing to her, she was a nobleman without it." 

It is not the size of a farm that in all cases deter- 
mines the question of success. Whether large or 
small ones are the more desirable, is referred to 
elsewhere. Great things have been accomplished 
on the former, but results comparatively marvel- 
lous have been achieved upon the latter, sometimes 
with very inadequate means. No farm is to be de- 
spised because it happens to be a very small one. 
An acre of land possesses capabilities which few can 
be made to understand until they see them fully de- 
veloped. It is not exclusively from the land that 
profit comes, but from the judicious application of 
labor upon it. 



308 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

An admirable specimen of farming on a small 
scale is presented in the management of Mr. Nathan 
G. Morgan, of Union Springs, New York. That 
gentleman formerly possessed 300 acres, which he 
subsequently reduced to 160, and afterward, in con- 
sequence of protracted illness in his family, he re- 
moved to another place containing only 11 acres. 
He has remarked that even this is too large. Yet 
from this little spot he has sold $300 worth of farm 
products in a single year, besides retaining enough 
for the use of his family. He performs all the labor 
with his own hands. He is especially successful in 
raising pork, and finds this the most profitable 
branch of farming, much more so than raising 
wheat. He long since gave up raising cattle, as 
being far less productive. He has raised 130 bush- 
els of shelled corn per acre, but the average is 
about 80. By his skill in the art of pork-making, 
he realizes a dollar per bushel for corn when the 
pork is five cents per pound in market. He makes 
an acre of ground maintain a horse during the 
whole year, by soiling, feeding corn, &c. He 
thinks, nevertheless, that a large farm may be made 
as profitable as a small one, if equally well man- 
aged ; but he considers the temptation, in nearly 
all cases, is to do the work too superficially. 

Coming down to what has actually been done on 
a two-acre farm, we obtain some approximate idea 
of the real capabilities of well managed land. A 
writer in the New England Farmer says, that nine 
years previous he came into possession of a two-acre 
farm, from the whole of which it was barely possi- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 309 

ble to get one ton of hay, so badly had the land 
been run down. Yet he increased the product of 
hay to two and one-half tons, and the whole money 
value of the two acres to $133 per annum. Let 
only six or ten acres be farmed with equal skill, and 
any one can cypher up how far the yield will count 
in the keeping of a family. 

The further one looks into this branch of the sub- 
ject, the more apparent does it become that success 
depends not on the quantity of land, but on the 
management. Some years since a little treatise was 
published in London, by Mr. John Sillett, setting 
forth the results obtained by cultivation of two 
acres with the spade and fork. The author being 
broken down in health by long confinement to busi- 
ness in London, purchased two acres of land, for 
which he paid $1,180. He undertook farming in 
total ignorance of the art ; yet, he supported him- 
self, wife, and child, entirely from the products of 
his little tract. After twelve years experience he 
speaks with confidence of the possibility of a man's 
getting a living from 'two acres. He states the 
requisites to be a fair start with a good piece of 
land, sufficient means to commence with, skill, per- 
severance, a willingness to labor, and a reasonable 
degree of economy. 

This success on two acres was secured by reject- 
ing the plough and depending on the spade and fork, 
the latter being subsequently used as the preferable 
tool. His land had been many years in pasture, 
but he produced wheat, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, 
and mangolds. Of course he owned a cow, which 



310 

fattened a calf annually to better profit than could 
have been secured by selling milk or making butter. 
The litters from a single sow he fattened and sold. 
The manure he needed was manufactured on the 
farm, and its efficiency greatly increased by keeping 
it under cover. While these curious results were 
being annually realized,- Mr. Sillett contrived to 
build a dwelling-house, cow-house, and piggery, and 
was contemplating underdraining. 

But other benefits accrued from his undertaking. 
He says — 

" Besides the greatest of all benefits that I have derived, 
in restoring a sickly constitution to perfect health, I felt 
delighted at the thought of being independent of the har- 
assing cares of business. Of all the feelings which we 
possess, none is dearer than consciousness of independence ; 
and this no man who earns his living by the favor of the 
public, can be said to enjoy in an equal degree with the 
husbandman. In trade there is a great jealousy and com- 
petition existing, and a submission to the public which is 
galling to the spirit. But since I have given my attention 
to the cultivation of the soil, I find I have no competition 
to fear, have nothing to apprehend from the success of my 
neighbor, and owe no thanks for the purchase of my com- 
modities. Possessing on my land all the necessaries of 
life, I am under no anxiety regarding my daily subsistence." 

Spade husbandry means, and in reality is, thor- 
ough cultivation of the soil. Our gardens are all 
perpetual illustrations of its superior value. There 
is a man at Javington, in England, Dumbrel by 
oame, with a wife and several children, very poor, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 311 

and so afflicted by disease as to disable him from 
working a whole day through. An acre of land 
was let to him on condition of his stall-feeding a 
cow, building a shed for her, and making a tank for 
her liquid manure. At first his neighbors ridiculed 
him for keeping his cow under shelter all the year 
round, saying it would be-unhealthy. But his an- 
swer was that some one had lent him £5 toward 
buying a cow on these conditions, and he would try 
them. Eminent agriculturists, hearing of this poor 
man's case, went to see how he was succeeding with 
his cow. They found her perfectly healthy, after 
being stall-fed three years and a half, and that from 
the butter he had sold he had soon paid off the loan 
of £5, and had got a second cow on half an acre of 
pasture, but he told them he had had to apply twice 
to the farrier for the pastured cow, but never for 
that which was stall-fed, while she gave a third 
more butter than the other. This land was worked 
with the spade, and thus was made to yield a suc- 
cession of green and succulent crops for summer 
use, with abundant store for winter consumption, 
besides supporting a large family. Dumbrel's con- 
dition was improving annually. Yet in his case 
there was a combination of two exceedingly discour- 
aging elements — ill-health, and spade-husbandry, 
the most laborious description of agricultural toil. 
Its superior value was manifest in making .a sick 
man entirely comfortable. 

More remarkable than any of these cases is that 
of a farmer who rose from nothing into absolute in- 
dependence, though born without either hands or 



312 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

arms. This man was William Kingston, the son of 
a laboring woman, and was ushered into this world 
poor and helpless, for he had neither hands, arms, 
nor shoulders. But nature had blessed him with 
longer toes, and greater flexibility of feet and legs, 
which by constant use made up for the deficiency 
of hands and arms. H* shaved himself regularly, 
wrote plainly and distinctly, and in dressing and 
undressing required assistance in buttoning and un- 
buttoning only certain portions of his dress. He 
was at no loss at meals ; tea, coffee, and food were 
conveyed by his feet with equal facility as by hand. 
In the hayfield he was as active as any other in 
securing the crop, and performed every duty in the 
haymaking process, except mowing and pitching. 
Few were better milkers — he worked at all the re- 
quirements of a dairy-farm, with the aforesaid ex- 
ceptions. He could cut the hay at the stack, and 
take it to the cows and fodder them as well as 
others did. 

But this deficient body was famished with a ca- 
pacious head in which a mighty brain was stored. 
"When a mere boy, some compassionate neighbor 
gave him a hen and chicken, then another gave 
him a lamb. These fractions of a capital he nursed 
and multiplied until he was able to procure a colt. 
In the end he became possessed of a dairy-farm, 
and died independent. It would seem clear that 
his success depended exclusively on his head, seeing 
that he was destitute of arms. 

Few facts could show more conclusively than 
this, that he who is striving for success in life must 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 313 

be his own right hand-man. A writer who is un- 
known to me, lays it down as a rule that " people 
who have been bolstered up and levered all their 
lives, are seldom good for any thing in a crisis. 
When misfortune comes, they look around for some- 
body to cling to or lean upon. If the prop is not 
there, down they go. Once there, they are as help- 
less as capsized turtles, or unhorsed men in armor, 
and they cannot find their feet again without assist- 
ance. Such silken fellows no more resemble self- 
made men, who have fought their way to position, 
making difficulties their stepping stones, and deriv- 
ing determination from defeat, than vines resemble 
oaks, or sputtering rushlights the stars of heaven. 
Efforts persisted to achievements train a man to 
self-reliance ; and when he has proven to the world 
that he can trust himself, the world will trust him. 
It must therefore be unwise to deprive young men 
of the advantages which result from energetic ac- 
tion, by buoying them over obstacles which they 
ought to surmount alone. No one ever swam well 
who placed his confidence in a cork jacket ; and if, 
when breasting the sea of life, we cannot buoy 
ourselves up, and try to force ourselves ahead by 
dint of our own energies, we must go to the bot- 
tom." 

" We must all learn," he adds, " to conquer cir- 
cumstances, thus becoming independent of fortune. 
The men of athletic minds, who left their marks on 
the age in which they lived, were all trained in a 
rough school. They did not mount into their high 
positions by the help of leverage. They leaped 

14 



314: HOW TO GET A FARM, 

into chasms, grappled with the opposing rocks, 
avoided avalanches, and when the goal was reached, 
felt that but for the toil that strengthened them as 
they strove, it could never have been attained." 

The question whether it is better to have a small, 
well-cultivated farm, or a large one poorly culti- 
vated, or not cultivated at all, and whether men 
with small holdings are not usually most successful, 
has often been discussed. It would be out of place 
to reopen the debate here. But as the subject of 
small farms is now before us, I quote from the 
Country Gentleman the following remarks of Mr. O. 
S. Leavitt, of Detroit, as bearing on the question — 

" The general broad proposition, without qualification, 
that small farms are preferable to large ones, is a fallacy. 
A great deal of nonsense has been written and spoken in 
favor of it, and, in my judgment, no one error of opinion 
is more wide-spread or more injurious. The real argu- 
ments, pro and con, lie within a very narrow compass. All 
will admit that it requires a great deal of science, knowl- 
edge, industry, tact, and agricultural skill, to conduct even 
a farm of 20 acres in the best manner, or in an excellent 
manner. Very few farmers can do it. The cases are rare, in- 
deed, where a small farm or a large one either, is well managed. 
I am not writing to flatter the farmers ; I would rather tell 
the truth. Are all the small farms well managed ? Far from 
it. Probably more large farms, in proportion, are well 
managed than small ones. If a farmer is to do all his work 
himself, he of course should have a small farm ; but it is ab- 
surd to say that a man who thoroughly understands farming, 
say one farmer out of a hundred, should do this. A good 
farmer would greatly benefit the public, as well as himself, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 315 

by hiring as many unskilled farmers as he can superintend, 
and let his light shine. In fact, so few farmers understand 
their business, it would be better for them generally to hire 
out to some good farmer until they can learn how better 
to conduct farming on their own account. 

" Now, it requires more skill to conduct a small farm 
profitably, than a large one. A greater variety of products 
is required, all of which must be understood ; more care is 
required, greater judgment is necessary, and even the very 
drudgery must be mostly done by the owner himself. A 
farmer of less agricultural skill, confining himself to such 
branches as he best understands, with only ordinary judg- 
ment, hiring judiciously, &c, will generally do better on a 
large farm than a small one. But there are so many con- 
tingencies and conditions that may affect the result, it 
is very difficult to lay down a proposition on the subject 
sufficiently clear and guarded to be of general applica- 
tion. 

" Then this is a day of agricultural machinery ; this, in- 
deed, constitutes a new epoch in the annals of agriculture. 
The mowing and harvesting machines are of yesterday. 
Can the twenty-acre farmer avail himself of these ? Can 
he even supply himself with all the cheaper and smaller 
improvements — ditching machines, planters, drills, rollers, 
horse hoes, clod crushers, potato diggers, horse powers, 
threshers, &c. ? Nor can he generally avail himself as 
well as the larger farmer, of those natural resources, often 
so useful and so neglected, of running streams for irriga- 
tion, supplying water for stock, &c, to say nothing of his 
greatly increased expense for fences. 

" The constant reader of the Country Gentleman is aware 
that successful agriculture requires a wider range of knowl- 
edge, more extensive and varied attainments, than almost 
any other pursuit. Indeed, but few men can succeed well 



316 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

in all its departments. The good dairyman or grazier may- 
be but an indifferent fruit grower ; a successful cultivator of 
the cereals is seldom equally successful at sheep husbandry 
or horticulture. The man who has been blessed with such 
varied endowments, and is a genius of so high an order as 
to succeed well in all these things, should indeed have a 
large farm, giving employment to as many young men as 
possible — a model farm — a normal-school farm. Such a 
man should dispense wisdom and knowledge daily, both by 
word and action, theory and practice, to great numbers of 
his dependents, assistants, employes — overlooking, superin- 
tending, directing everything — a Columella in wisdom, a 
Liebig in science, a Mechi in vigor and enterprise. We 
see him, by the aid of his manager, gardener, nurseryman, 
and fruit grower, architect and builder, machinist and 
blacksmith, civil engineer, chaplain, professor of chemistry, 
schoolmaster, farrier, surgeon, landscape gardener, &c, 
practically educating his numerous laborers, so that they 
may in due time be able to carry much of this weight of 
wisdom into practical effect, and butter their bread upon 
the countless millions of uncultivated lands now at the 
West. 

" But this may be called a mere fancy sketch — an ex- 
travaganza. I shall be told that, in this country, no man 
can succeed by thus attempting to carry on farming by 
employing so many skilled, educated persons, as it would 
be desirable he should do, at the high salaries they would 
require, and that it would be necessary to have the wealth 
of a Nabob. Well, if the farmer, having the requisite 
amount of land, hasn't the means to hire them, let him 
take them into partnership. If he has but the land, and is 
the true country gentleman of education, experience, busi- 
ness talent and tact, he can easily draw around him the 
landless, skilled, educated, and industrious persons, to take 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 317 

charge of the various industrial departments of his estate 
for a reasonable share of interest, and divide the profits 
among the members. They could then, among them- 
selves, have a school good enough to render it entirely un- 
necessary to send their children abroad to be educated." 



318 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Why Land so often changes Owners — Tenures and Estates in 
England — Absorption there and here — Results of English 
Husbandry — The real Value of Land — Stick to the Farm — 
Scarecrows — Why Farming is Unprofitable — Go where most 
wanted. 

It has been assumed, throughout these pages, that 
the masses in this country are desirous of becoming 
owners of land. But among the curiosities of the 
subject is an extraordinary propensity among a por- 
tion of them to get rid of it. This must have its 
origin in the absorbing passion of Americans to 
become traders and speculators rather than farmers. 
Some writer, whose name is unknown to me, pro- 
nounces the American a type of a restless, adventur- 
ous, onward-going race of people. " He sends his 
merchandise all over the earth; stocks every market; 
makes wants that he may supply them ; covers New 
Zealand with Southern cotton woven in Northern 
looms ; sends clerks of stores to the Sandwich 
Islands ; swaps with the Fejee cannibals; sends his 
whale-ships among the polar icebergs, or to cruise 
in other solitary seas, till the log-book tells the 
tedious sameness of years, during which boys be- 
come men ; gives to the torrid zone the ice of our 
Northern winters ; piles up the crystal squares of 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 319 

Fresh Pond on the banks of the Iioogly ; gladdens 
the sultry savannahs of the lazy South, and makes 
life tolerable in the bungalow of an Indian jungle. 
The lakes of New England thus awake to life by the 
rivers of the East, and the antipodes of the earth 
come in contact at this meeting of the waters. The 
white canvas of his ships is seen in every nook of 
the ocean. Scarcely has the slightest information 
come of some unknown and obscure corner of the 
sea, when captains are consulting their charts, and 
cargoes are taken in for speculation." An idea suc- 
cessfully inaugurated here, he reproduces wherever 
civilization is established. He covers the West 
India Islands with a net-work of railroads, astonishes 
England with street conveniences of the same de- 
scription, raises fleets of sunken frigates in the 
harbor of Sevastopol, scents out new guano islands, 
and gluts all Europe with mowers and reapers, 
Yankee clocks, sewing machines, and baby-jumpers. 
It is money he is seeking to acquire — anything but 
houses or lands. 

The reverse of all this is witnessed in Europe. 
u There," says another, "but more especially in Eng- 
land, landed property seldom changes hands. This 
is partly in consequence of entails. But apart from 
that, if a man owns a house or lot, in a town or 
village, it will commonly remain in the hands of 
children and children's children, while here a man 
will buy and sell the homestead a dozen times, or 
at his death it passes into the hands of strangers, 
almost as a matter of course. Why is this? A 
multitude of causes operate to produce it, such as 



320 

the equal distribution of property among children, 
the prejudice in many quarters against making a 
will, the rise and fall of fortunes, and the constant 
changes in the value of real estate. But one cause 
is probably more potential than all. Almost every 
man who buys real estate, buys, builds, or improves, 
not so much with a simple view to his own comfort, 
as with an eye to what it will sell for when he has 
done making his improvements. Many men build 
very extensively, calculating upon this and this 
alone. They are not architects, not builders, not 
even capitalists ; but they build largely on credit, 
simply to wait as tenants for a rise in price, and 
then sell. Of course, the larger and more expensive 
the house, the larger the hope and expectation of 
gain. 

"All such," he adds, " are mere speculators. Their 
plans succeed often enough to encourage others who 
fancy they have skill and taste to imitate. Many 
of these aspirants for fortune lose thousands, but 
their disasters are soon forgotten. Such men, says 
some one, build houses far in advance of their real 
means and situation in life, and cities improve and 
towns spring up, beautiful to look upon, but too 
often they are not the abode of content and hap- 
piness. They might be, if each man built an 
humble home, just such as he could afford to hold 
through all the vicissitudes of business — such a home 
as his widow could afford to own, free from debt, 
and live in, without pecuniary care, after he was 
gone — such a home as any one of his children might 
reasonably hope to be able to keep up, without in- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 321 

convenience or ostentation. "We all see how families 
scatter ; but this is one chief cause of the scattering 
— that men buy houses, or build them about as a 
soldier builds his tent, for a night. Houses, farms, 
and furniture, are bought on credit, kept on mort- 
gage, and sold at a loss or gain, as the case may be, 
at live minutes' notice, because it was a part of the 
purchaser's original plan to hold the property only 
for an advantageous opportunity of disposing of it." 
The same writer thinks that, in " nine cases out 
of ten, it is cheaper to buy than to build, because 
dealing in houses and lands requires a skill and a 
capital which the majority of men do not possess. 
It is, moreover, far more comfortable, because it is 
free from the cares and annoyances of being en- 
gaged in matters very complicated, aside from a 
man's regular business, and because he can gener- 
ally select such a residence as suits his wants, and 
means, and convenience. In Europe, the happiest 
homes are those which, having been built for the 
present convenience of the father, have been merely 
altered so as to make them correspond with the 
present condition of the son or grandson, or more 
remote descendant, as the case may be — greatly 
changed by time, and mellowed and softened by its 
graver tints, or decayed and nibbled into by its old 
tooth, or enlarged piece by piece, and generation 
by generation, irregularly it may be, but with a 
strict eye to comfort and convenience, and corres- 
ponding with the growing wealth of an accumulat- 
ing and prudent family. In this country, we live 
too fast in the first generation to have many such 

14* 



322 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

houses as these — homesteads built comfortably 
within a man's income, in which he can and does 
live more liberally than he cares to appear to live — 
houses in which, if times should change, he or his 
children could live consistently and without mean- 
ness, on half his present expenditure. 

" Another great reason why houses change hands 
so often, and are so little homes for those who pos- 
sess them, is the practice of living too hopefully into 
the future, and without regard to future exigencies, 
living with too much sail in proportion to ballast. 
It is for every man to think what he desires in this 
matter. Many do not desire homes in the sense 
that I have described. They prefer to live on the 
wing, and in a splendor above their real means. 
With such it is better to rent, and quite absurd to 
build. It is even worse — it is mocking their children 
to build a house so splendid that none of them will 
be able to keep it up. Better the humblest cabin, 
respected and loved as the dear old home of child- 
hood, the shelter of a father's gray hairs, the centre 
of a hundred happy gatherings round a mother's 
knees, the refuge uninvaded by all enemies save the 
last, and where even he is so serenely met and wel- 
comed as to be robbed of his sting, and to have his 
enmity destroyed." 

In England, the passion for owning land may be 
said to be hereditary among all classes. With the 
titled and rich, who are able to gratify it, it has 
produced some remarkable results. The great land- 
holders are now comparatively few in number. I 
have seen them variously computed at from 30,000 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 323 

to 40,000, who hold landed property yielding an 
annual rent of not less than $500, the number rap- 
idly diminishing as the annual rent increases. The 
incomes of the wealthiest range from $100,000 to 
$1,500,000 per annum. A hundred years ago the 
landholders of England were numbered at 230,000, 
which number has ever since been rapidly dimin- 
ishing by the purchase of the lands belonging to the 
thriftless and wasteful, by the more prudent and 
wealthy. 

The Marquis of Bredalbane rides from his house a 
hundred miles in a straight line to the sea, on his 
own property. The Duke of Sutherland owns the 
entire county of that name, stretching across Scot- 
land from sea to sea. The Duke of Devonshire, be- 
sides his other estates, owns 96,000 acres in the 
county of Derby. The Duke of Richmond has 
40,000 acres at Goodwood, and 300,000 at Gordon 
Castle. The Duke of Norfolk's park in Sussex, is 
fifteen miles in circuit. An agriculturist recently 
bought the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, con- 
taining 500,000 acres. These vast domains are con- 
stantly growing larger. The great estates are ab- 
sorbing the smaller freeholds as opportunity offers. 
The great landholders never sell. 

Wherever slavery has cursed the soil of this coun- 
try by its presence, the same process of absorption 
ha.« been going on. Mr. Clay, of Alabama, gives 
the following gloomy picture — 

" I can show you, with sorrow, in the older portions of 
Alabama, and in my native county of Madison, the sad me- 



324 HOW TO GET A FARM - , 

raorials of the artless and exhausting culture of cotton. 
Our small planters, after taking the cream off their lands, 
unable to restore them by rest, manures, or otherwise, are 
going further West and South, in search of other virgin 
lands, which they may and will despoil and impoverish in 
like manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater means 
and no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, 
extending their plantations, and adding to their slave force. 
The wealthy few, who are able to live on smaller profits, 
and to give their blasted fields some rest, are thus pushing 
off the many who are merely independent. Of the 
$20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton 
crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting the 
producers is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the 
white population has decreased, and the slave increased al- 
most pari passu in several counties of our State. In 1825, 
Madison County cast about 3,000 votes; now, she cannot 
cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that county one will 
discover numerous farm houses, once the abode of intelli- 
gent and industrious freemen, now occupied by slaves, or 
tenantless, deserted, and dilapidated ; he will observe 
fields once fertile, now unfenced, abandoned, and covered 
with those evil harbingers, foxtail and broomsedge ; he will 
see the moss growing on the mouldering walls, of once 
thrifty villages, and will find one only master grasps the 
whole domain that once furnished happy homes for a dozen 
white families. Indeed, a country in its infancy, where fifty 
years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled by the axe of 
the pioneer, is already exhibiting the painful signs of senil- 
ity and decay apparent in Virginia and the Carolina*." 

Among English owners " are many men of the 
highest intellectual powers and attainments, of the 
highest social position, and of the most refined cul- 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 325 

ture ; noblemen not only by right of geniture and 
rank, but noble men in the noblest sense of the 
word, who are carrying forward on their enormous 
estates the most magnificent operations in the high- 
est culture of the soil, winning from their well fed 
and well tilled acres the richest reward of the wisest 
husbandry. One contemplates with amazement the 
magnificence of their arrangements for irrigating 
hundreds of acres, as may be seen on the estates of 
the Duke of Portland ; the vast extent of their sys- 
tems of drainage and subsoiling, the enormous cap- 
ital invested in carrying on their agricultural pro- 
cesses and improvements, and the vast revenues by 
which they are enabled to push forward their splen- 
did designs. It is fortunate for mankind that such 
men devote their talents and their great resources 
to an enterprise so important, and exert their pow- 
erful influence in the promotion of so great a cause 
— a cause which holds concentrated within itself 
every inducement to allure the loftiests minds and 
the fullest means to its support, as upon its success 
humanity itself depends for the continuance of its 
very existence." 

It may be safely asserted that " but for the high 
culture which the soil of England has received un- 
der such influences, and the consequent develop- 
ment of its exuberant riches, her population could 
not have made the great strides that have carried it 
from four and a half millions in 1600 to more than 
twenty-five millions in 1862 ; nor could the nation 
itself have attained that immense power and wealth 
which make her now to stand foremost among the 



326 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

nations of the world, and the richest of human 
aristocracies." 

Thus, " under the influence of the culture created 
bj the action of such minds upon labor, we find a 
yield of 50 to 80 bushels of wheat per acre in Eng- 
land, from 40 to 70 in France, and the productive 
power of an acre of land in the well cultivated part 
of Europe to be double what it was seventy-rive 
years ago. In proof of the influence of improved 
tillage in England in enabling her to sustain her 
own people with diminished reliance on importa- 
tions from foreign countries, I may here state the 
important fact, that while in the first ten years of 
the present century she imported foreign wheats at 
the rate of eight quarts per annum for each person 
in the realm, in the next ten years she imported but 
six, in the next five years but four, and in the last 
three years of these five, at the low rate of a single 
pint, the soil of the kingdom supplying all the rest 
consumed. More land had indeed been brought 
under tillage, but every acre, old and new, having 
been better tilled, had made a better yield." 

Many of the foregoing facts and observations are 
here reproduced from anonymous sources ; but it 
may be said that everybody who has taken the 
smallest pains to ascertain the facts, knows and tes- 
tifies that agriculture has advanced just in propor- 
tion as mind, mind as developed in men of intellect, 
intelligence, education, and reflection, has given at- 
tention to it. The condition of English agriculture, 
as an obvious and suggestive example, bears ample 
testimony to the influence of mind upon progress. 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 327 

When Americans acquire a similar fondness for ag- 
riculture, the possession of land will be as eagerly 
desired by them. I admit that such a passion has 
sensibly increased within twenty years ; but our 
country is too vast in size, our population too lim- 
ited in numbers, and the wealth of the community 
too small, for the present century to realize any ap- 
proximation to the intensity with which it animates 
the popular heart in Europe. 
The Philadelphia Ledger says : 

" It has been remarked, by political economists, that the 
sum per acre at which landed property is found to sell in 
nearly all countries, and for long periods, proves that men 
are glad to purchase it at a price at which they know be- 
forehand it will yield them less than the ordinary rate of 
interest. In this country, men who could, on bond and 
mortgage, easily get six or seven per cent., will be glad 
rather to purchase the same lot of land, even though they 
can hardly thus make five ; and in England, where ordinary 
interest is five per cent., they will purchase land where it 
will not yield more than three. 

"Various have been the methods taken to account for this 
well-established fact. Some have attributed it to the tend- 
ency of landed property slowly and steadily to rise in value 
as population becomes more dense, or roads and schools 
become better, and the arts and habits of civilization more 
complete. This may in part account for it, especially as 
money has a tendency to depreciate in value very noticeably 
in a long period. But after making every calculable al- 
lowance for that, the whole of this tendency in man to 
become possessed of land at a less remunerative price is 
not fully accounted for. The superior supposed security of 



328 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

landed property has something to do with it. A man who 
has a mortgage may find some fraudulent evasion of it, 
some sale for taxes which has destroyed his title. Or by 
the death of the proprietor lawsuits may be brought that 
will nearly swallow up the value of the mortgage in secur- 
ing the claim, so that it has become an invariable rule 
among capitalists not to invest even on mortgage where the 
property is so far off that the man interested cannot look 
after it himself. But land, if you start with a clear title, 
and pay the taxes, and are loyal and quiet, is safe, and rises 
with all the improvement of society, to fall only with its 
decay. 

" But the real and most fundamental reason for the extra 
value attached to land, it appears to us, is, that however 
narrow its dimensions, the possession of every acre involves 
rights, the extent of which is literally unbounded. Stakes 
may be driven at the four corners of a lot, and the lines 
marked out and fenced in, north, south, east, and west. 
But there are at least two sides on which it has no bounds, 
the height above and the depth below. No one knows the 
values that are or may be connected with those unlimited 
sides of every man's farm. 4 Build high,' was a saying of 
Stephen Girard, ' there is no ground rent above.' No one 
knows what commercial value may some day attach to a 
good situation for drawing in unlimited supplies of oxygen 
or nitrogen. The fresh air or the beautiful prospect even 
now give their greatest real value to many a building-lot of 
land, for the eye has an empire of its own. It can stretch 
far and wide, and from the proper stand-point connects the 
possessor of land with realms and a domain stretching out 
beyond the farthest star into absolute infinity. Some day 
we may navigate the air, at least the lower regions of it, 
and what may be the value of those rights, now only used 
by the tree tops and the birds, who shall say? The 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 329 

shooting is even now of great pecuniary value in Eng- 
land. 

" But it is not only above, but below that most appre- 
ciable value is likely to become increasingly connected with 
the possession of land. All the wealth of minerals and 
mines is thus obtained. To say, however, nothing of these 
possibilities, how deep we may finally penetrate into the 
Dowels of the earth for water, or what may springs furnish- 
ing salt or oil afford, who shall say ? Already we suck, if 
not honey out of the rock, at least * oil out of the flinty 
rock.' We may before long tap the earth regularly for gas 
or fuel, or still more directly for heat or motive power. 

" There is, however, yet a third direction in which the 
possession of land connects a family with the unlimited — 
it is theirs, till voluntarily parted with, forever. It is like a 
spring ; it yields a present supply, and one that is undi- 
minishing forever. The farms of England, that have been 
worked for ages, yield on an average far more and not less 
to the acre to-day than those of the State of New York or 
Pennsylvania, that have been cleared but half a century. 
The supply is perpetual. While the earth remaineth, seed 
time and harvest shall not cease. 

" Every spot of ground thus connects its possession with 
the limitless on three sides, and it is this sublime alliance of 
the mind of man with the unbounded and the infinite, 
which gives to the possession of land such a peculiar value. 
It enlarges the ideas more than any other earthly possession, 
and leads out the soul into all that is grand and sublime." 

After all that has been said touching the best 
way to get a farm, and where to find one, it may 
be added that almost everything depends upon the 
man himself — he must either know how, or he must 



330 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

learn how to manage it. It has been well said, that 
tools do not make the workman, but the trained 
skill and perseverance of the operator himself. It 
is proverbial that bad workmen never yet had a 
good tool. Some one asked Opie by what wonder- 
ful process he mixed his colors. " I mix them with 
brains, sir," was his reply. 

Having secured possession of a farm, let the 
young man cling to it. .Now, when land and its 
products have been daily rising in price, with butter 
at half a dollar, and hay at twenty -live dollars per 
ton, be not led away from this honorable and inde- 
pendent occupation by the seductive glitter of some 
apparently golden prospect in the distance — some 
chance in city life, where there may be less of bodily 
toil, more of what the world calls honor, but less of 
real comfort. On this subject Mr. Henry H. French 
gives us an instructive caution : 

il You are tempted to exchange the hard work of the 
farm, to become a clerk in a city shop, to put off your 
heavy boots and frock, and be a gentleman, behind the 
counter ! You, by birth and education, intended for an up- 
right, independent, manly citizen, to call no man master, 
and to be no man's servant, would become, at first, the 
errand boy of the shop, to fetch and carry like a spaniel, 
then the salesman, to fill the place which, at best, a girl 
would fill much better — to bow, and smile, and cringe, and 
flatter — to attend upon the wishes of every painted and 
padded form of humanity — to humbly suggest to rakes and 
harlots, as well as to starched and ruffled respectability, 
what color and fabric best becomes the form and complexion 
of each — and finally to become a trader, a worshipper of 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 331 

mammon, compelled to look anxiously at prices current of 
cotton and railroad stocks, in order to learn each morning 
whether you are bankrupt or not, and in the end to fail, 
and compromise with your creditors and your conscience, 
and sigh for your native hills. 

" Or, perhaps, your party being in power, you would ob- 
tain a clerkship at Washington, and remove your little 
family from the North, to a more genial climate, to live at 
your ease, and grow rich on twelve hundred dollars a year ! 
You give up your little farm, your New England privileges 
of schools and churches, your independent and influential 
membership of parish, and district, and town, and church, 
the woods and playgrounds for your children, your friends, 
and kindred, and home. Twelve hundred dollars is a large 
sum to you, "half the price of your farm, perhaps, twice the 
amount of the minister's salary. With your habits of 
economy and thrift, you can live on half the -amount. Your 
arrangements are to be made — the homestead is sold, and 
you are landless. After all, it is not so easy parting with 
our household gods. The trees our hands have planted 
take root in our hearts, the vines and roses, twined by our 
own fingers, and those of our loved ones, over rustic arbors, 
cling round us more closely than we thought. Your labor 
has been mingled with the soil of every field. Tears are in 
the eyes of your wife at every thought of departing, but 
she trusts in your superior judgment, and no murmur 
escapes her lips at your decision. 

" You have left your home. At the end of a single year, 
in the city of magnificent distances, you have bitter realiza- 
tions of the meaning of that phrase. It has proved, indeed, 
to be full of magnificent distances for you, from happiness, 
from independence, from advantages of every kind. For 
the first time, you have felt how sore a thing it is for a 
Northern freeman to be dependent, to labor at stated hours, 



332 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

at the bidding of a superior officer, to feel that the office 
you fill, on which depends your very means of living for 
yourself and family, is held at the arbitrary will of another, 
who may, if he please, make a servile conformity of your 
views with his own, on political, or what you may deem 
moral questions, the condition by which you retain your 
place. You who, at home, had never seen the man who 
dared claim to be your superior, are forced to submit to 
the iron rule of caste, to send your card to the secretary, 
whom you once knew, perhaps, as an equal, and wait an 
hour with the colored servant in the hall, to be told at last 
to call another day — to be slipped over, or shaken off by 
the ' member' whom you helped to elect, and who now had 
no further use foe you, and consume your energies in en- 
deavoring to keep the toe of your boot from proximity with 
that part of his person where his honor holds its seat — to 
be assessed to .support party presses whose principles you 
may despise. In short, you have sold your birthright for a 
mess of pottage. 

"But the half is not yet told, for even the mess of pot- 
tage is not sufficient for your wants. Your salary is at 
starvation point. You must pay two hundred dollars for a 
house, with two parlors, and a basement for servants, with- 
out a cellar, without a closet, without a pump or aqueduct, 
without a sink, or clothes yard, or garden. Your wife, with 
the aid of a servant, cannot do the work so easily as she 
did it alone when at the North. All the water comes in 
buckets from the city pump a dozen rods off; the slops are 
poured into the street, your clothing is crammed into 
wardrobes, your supplies must be procured daily at market, 
in contemptible quantities — in short, everything, except the 
parlors, which are for show, and to make you seem re- 
spectable, must be richly carpeted and curtained, every- 
thing is adapted to the idea that labor is degrading, and 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 333 

that the comfort and convenience of those who perform it 
is not worth consulting. The thrift, the energy, and com- 
fort of Northern households is unknown in this latitude.* 

" Look now at the prices of necessary articles of food. 
On your farm, however small, your cellar was always filled 
with an unlimited supply of such vegetables as you desired, 
and barrels of beef and pork of your own slaughtering. 
Your granary had always as much of corn and rye, and 
perhaps of wheat, as you chose to use. Your cows at all 
times gave you milk and butter in abundance, and your 
garden and orchard supplied fruits for yourself and the 
children without stint. Now you buy a peck of potatoes 
for three shillings, beef at sixteen cents a pound, turkeys 
at from a dollar and a quarter to two dollars each, chick- 
ens with the shells scarcely off their heads, not larger 
than robins, at twenty-five cents each, butter at thirty- one 
cents, and milk at eight. Instead of enjoying the abun- 
dance of the earth, as you have been accustomed to do, 
you begin to associate the idea of dollars and cents with 
the food on your table ; you are compelled to vex yourself 
with economizing in the details of living, and to feel your 
soul gradually narrowing in, to a conformity with narrow 
circumstances. You find yourself a poorer man than while 
upon your hard Northern farm, poorer in your animal 
means of living, poorer in comparison with those around 
you, poorer in independence, in prospects for yourself and 
family, poorer in everything." 

This leaving the farm for a fortune is deplored in 
graphic terms by the author, " Doesticks," who 
avers that 

* This was written in 1854. Ten years have revolutionized, 
redeemed, and purified Washington. 



334 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

" Young men in the West, when they get too lazy to 
plough, drive oxen, and dig potatoes, invariably either go to 
study law, physic, or divinity, or emigrate to New York to 
make their fortunes. Hence the inundation of two-and- 
sixpenny pettifoggers, the abundant crop of innocent, ju- 
venile-looking M. D.s, and the army of weak-eyed preachers, 
whose original simplicity is too deep-rooted to be ever 
overgrown by the cares of after life. The portion of our 
country known as the West, sends forth every year scores 
of these misguided innocents, who, had they stayed at 
home, might have grown up into tolerable farmers, or even 
been cultivated into respectable mechanics, but who, being 
thrown into the whirl of city life, degenerate into puny 
clerks, with not half enough salary to pay for their patent- 
leather boots. 

" It is a curious fact, that two-thirds of the young men 
from the country, their first year in the metropolis, do not 
receive as a remuneration for their valuable services, a sum 
sufficient to keep them in theatre tickets. If a committee 
of their employers should be detailed to investigate the 
hidden pecuniary fountain whence these young men obtain 
the funds many of them lavish so freely, the said committee 
would be considerably astonished to find out how much 
more champagne and oysters the New York merchants pay 
for than the most knowing of them are aware of; and their 
wives would be astounded to learn how many bracelets and 
diamond pins had been presented to ladies of the theatre 
aud ballet, and bought with their husbands' money. And 
many a country mother would mourn to hear that her 
darling had, in the first six months of his city life, learned 
to practice more vices than she had ever heard of, and 
among his other attainments, had acquired the elegant city 
accomplishment of spending his employer's money as freely 
as if it were his own." 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 



335 



I grant that change of occupation is sometimes 
desirable and prudent, sometimes even necessary. 
When driven to it by pecuniary calamity, it should 
be made courageously, and with utter contempt of 
the jibes or sneers of others. I know the world is 
full of scarecrows — but why is it that they are al- 
ways black ? Go into the newly planted cornfields, 
and you will see the unfolding blade protected by 
effigies as woeful as if clad in the cast off inexpress- 
ibles of a rebel regiment. Old hats and older coats, 
mounted painfully on crooked sticks, or waving to 
and fro in the wind, suspended from patriarchal 
apple-trees, — these are scarecrows — but what sim- 
pletons the crows must be for being thus easily 
frightened off from a living. Yet one need not go 
so far as even the nearest cornfield for a counter- 
part. There is a scarecrow of some kind in every 
house, domesticated at every fireside, nestling in 
every bosom. Old hats and worn out inexpressi- 
bles may serve to frighten crows, and we may smile 
at their simplicity in thus being kept at bay ; but 
who among us, no matter how straitened or de- 
pressed, that does not find the prospect of reassum- 
ing even his own cast off toggery to be the unsus- 
pected scarecrow of his own heart ? Pride, per- 
sonal, foolish, utterly groundless, is the great 
national scarecrow. Too many of us are slaves to 
appearances, mere walking advertisements of the 
milliner or tailor. Strangely enough, one leaves his 
brown stone mansion and takes to boarding, with- 
out compunction ; but the thought of earning bread 
by apparently mean employment, is absolutely kill- 



336 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

ing, though it be honester than any previous one. 
This reveals the household scarecrow, for wife and 
family protest — it were better to starve ! We ridi- 
cule the crow for his simplicity, but are we any 
wiser ? 

I know how habit clutches at the heart — how 
gambling, rum, tobacco, both rule and stultify — and 
that this pride tyrannizes with a despotism infinitely 
more galling, because the whole family become its 
victims. Yet no heroism can be greater, no good 
sense more positive, than that which so strengthens 
a man into breaking its bonds, grappling with the 
emergency, be it what it may, and kicking his own 
particular scarecrow to the dogs. 

"Eight Side Up," traced legibly on a shingle 
which had been planed smooth to enable the artist 
to display his skill, met my eye one morning at a 
crowded steamboat landing in New York, soon af- 
ter the rebellion burst upon the country. It stood 
upon a table covered by a clean white cloth, 
whereon was bounteous store of peanuts, ginger- 
bread, and pretzels, intermixed with oranges and 
penny confectioneries for which all urchins seem to 
have been born with an undying relish. As the 
day was windy and the street alive with carriages 
and other vehicles, these delicacies were frosted 
with dust. Tubs containing bottles of root beer 
stood shadily under the table, but the imprisoned 
effervescence must have been hot in spite of the 
water that surrounded them. These things I barely 
noticed — it was the shingle that attracted my atten- 
tion. Could this be one of the signs of the times ? 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 337 

It seemed to mean something, hence I paused to 
look and consider, never noticing the man who re- 
joiced in being proprietor of this diversified exhi- 
bition. But though not observing him, it seems 
that he had noticed me. 

" Right side up, sir, and mean to keep so," he ex- 
claimed, rising from his seat, coming to where I 
stood, and extending his hand. My astonishment 
was really very great, but he exhibited none. His 
emotion appeared to be that of satisfaction, open, 
manly, heart-felt. I had known him as the expert 
foreman of a great machine shop, overlooking sev- 
eral hundred hands, and making twenty dollars a 
week ; but at a glance I conjectured how the matter 
stood. 

" Why, how is this ?" I asked. 

" Swallowed my pride three months ago," he re- 
sponded. "Work was dead, employers broke, 
nothing to do, had a wife and family, only fifty 
dollars in pocket, and with twenty of it set up this 
table. It sounds like coming down, and it was hard 
to undergo this publicity, but look at my hands, 
they are clean, and I am not ashamed to look any 
man in the face. My pride has left me — gone to 
trouble some one else. Wife and daughters make 
the cakes and beer, keep up the table, and the 
table keeps up us. How does it strike an old ac- 
quaintance like you, or have you any thing better 
on hand ?" 

Here it all was in a nutshell, just as I had some- 
how conjectured. I looked upon the man as a hero 
— he was a hero. Depend upon it that all such 

15 



338 HOW TO GET A FARM, 

were not crowded into Pickens or Sumter ; for there 
is a moral heroism which as effectually challenges 
the admiration of good men as that which personal 
daring wins at the cannon's mouth. Did he not 
confess to the scarecrow, and had he not ousted it ? 
Here was evidence of the truly independent, self- 
relying grit, which, in some form or other, ought to 
be exhibited in time of sore calamity. 

" You have done well," I answered. " You have 
made a double conquest — pride and bad luck. But 
this will lead you to better things. There are many 
stepping-stones to fortune, and this may be yours. 
I honor you for your courage." 

Poor, brave fellow ! These must have been 
among the few words of cheering sympathy he had 
heard, for his lip quivered, his eye became moist, and 
he did not trust himself to reply. His heart was 
bigger than I had ever dreamed of. 

The possession of what one may really call a 
home, is among the unspeakable blessings of this 
life. The man who cannot prize it must have some 
radical deficiency in his organization. Mr. Beecher 
refers to such a possession in one of his characteris- 
tic paragraphs. He says — 

" But what a poor, shivering, restless, rapping sprite is 
without a body, that is a living man without a house. He 
cannot take root. A man at a hotel is like a grapevine in 
a flower-pot, movable, carried round from place to place 
docked at the root and short at the top! There is no- 
where that a man can get real root-room, and spread out 
his branches till they touch the morning and the evening, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 66\) 

but in his own house. If I could, I should be glad to live 
in the house that my ancestors had lived in from the days 
of the flood. That cannot be ; for in ascending the line of 
ancestry I find the people but not the houses, and it is 
more than suspected that some of them never owned one ! 
My father's house ! It is like a picture rubbed out. The 
frame and canvas are there, but strangers have possessed 
it. The room where I was born, where my mother rocked 
my cradle and sang as angels do — where she died, where 
all my boyish frolics began and life spread out its golden 
dream — they are all overlaid by other histories. We 
planted pleasant things in the old house, but the Assyrians 
came in and settled down upon them." 

But some one has said that nine-tenths of our 
farmers find farming unprofitable — that is, paying 
but a very small percentage on the capital invested 
in land, stock, tools, &c. On this subject the editor 
of the Country Gentleman has crowded a mass of 
interesting information into a nutshell, much of 
which I reproduce as appropriate to the discussion. 
He says that hundreds of farmers who own from a 
hundred and fifty to three hundred acres of good 
land, tolerably well stocked, find themselves barely 
able to prove that they are as well off to-day as 
they were a year ago ; and many declare that the 
laborer, who has nothing but his hands to get a liv- 
ing, lays up more money in a year than they with 
all their broad acres and flocks of cattle and sheep. 
If this be true, and doubtless it is so in many in- 
stances, a farm managed as a large share of our 
farms are managed, would be a clog to a young 
man with a small family, who is endeavoring to 



340 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

lay up something for those rainy days* which are 
sure to fall to the lot of many of us in our journey 
through life. 

It is not high-priced labor, nor unpropitious sea- 
sons, nor because produce brings a low price, that 
makes farming unprofitable. Every laborer is 
worthy of his hire ; the harvests are bountiful ; con- 
sumers are increasing so rapidly as to keep provis- 
ions up to prices that ought to be satisfactory to 
producers ; yet the question as to why farming is 
unprofitable continues to be asked. It is just as 
regularly answered, but does not seem to stay so. 

Instances are continually reported of men who 
have maintained families on the product of ten, fif- 
teen, or twenty acres of land, which, when they be- 
gan, was no better than the average. They have 
lived respectably, given their children a good edu- 
cation, and saved money. Ireland contains forty 
thousand farmers who occupy spots ranging from 
only one to two acres each. In France the subdi- 
vision of land into small parcels is equally exten- 
sive. Yet the occupants all live, and regard the 
being dispossessed of their small holdings as the 
misfortune of their lives. Why, then, cannot Amer- 
icans who own two hundred or a thousand acres, 
make farming profitable ? There is a controlling 
reason which has been repeatedly set forth — they 
plant too much, spreading their limited quantity of 
manure over too large a surface, thus impoverish- 
ing the land and wasting their labor. Eighty 
bushels of corn, and other grains in proportion, may 
be raised on one acre of land much easier than on 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 341 

two, and where land is so cultivated as to produce 
such crops it is constantly improving. When not 
so cultivated it is constantly depreciating. 

Take, as an illustration, the case of two adjoining 
farms, that of A containing 150 acres, and that of 
B only 40. A has 40 acres of meadow, on which 
he cuts an annual average of 35 tons of hay, while 
B has only 15 acres of meadow, yielding him 2| 
tons per acre, or 37| in all. A plants 6 or 8 acres 
of corn every year, which yield him about 30 
bushels to the acre, and his other field crops are in 
proportion, with proportionate results. On the 
other hand, B plants but 2 or 3 acres of corn, but 
he gathers from 75 to 80 bushels per acre, and is 
able to do all his work himself. A pays out $150 
a year for help. He complains of hard times, of 
the scarcity of money, and talks of moving West, 
not because there is more money there, but because 
he can obtain more land. He seems unable to com- 
prehend that he already has more than he is man- 
aging properly. 

No such longings assail B. His little freehold is 
too precious in his eyes to be alienated — he is satis- 
fied that no change could be for the better. His 
farm is constantly improving in value, while the 
other is annually decreasing. The latter is worked 
by a skinner, the former by & farmer. The skinner 
ploughs and plants indiscriminately. Around his 
barns the manure heaps lie unused from year to 
year. £fe reads no agricultural books, takes no ag- 
ricultural paper, sells all his best stock, and is thus 
compelled to keep that which is so worthless as to 



342 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 

be unsalable. But B suffers no particle of ma- 
nure to remain unused, and ploughs only such laud 
as he can thoroughly enrich. He sells his poorest 
stock and keeps only the best. He takes the best 
agricultural periodicals, and though he may read in 
them the most glowing accounts of distant lands at 
low prices, yet his affections are too firmly anchored 
in his little homestead for them to excite in him a 
single wish to leave it. It is not the farming that 
is unprofitable, but the management. 

This recital revives once more the often mooted 
question of the comparative advantage of large or 
small farms. It cannot be denied that very large 
ones have been so managed by competent men as to 
yield enormous profits, while annually becoming 
more valuable. A single California farmer has har- 
vested a crop of 400,000 bushels of potatoes, while 
a neighbor's crop amounted to 250,000 bushels. 
Another, at Los Angeles, with a vineyard of 35 
acres, makes 35,000 gallons of wine annually. The 
wheat crop of that region reaches as high as 60 to 
70 bushels per acre. The district around Sacra- 
mento is a vast wheat and barley field. Cattle re- 
quire no housing as in the Atlantic States, but keep 
themselves the year round on the pastures. 

In that State farming seems to be the sure road to 
fortune — the larger the well-managed farm the 
more rapid the accumulation. It will surprise 
readers in the East to hear of the immense fruit 
orchards in California, which so far surpass any 
thing in the Atlantic States as to make our attempts 
in this way seem exceedingly small. The following, 



AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 343 

from the California Farmer ', is an accurate account 
of the product of the orchard of Mr. G. C. Briggs, 
of Marysville : — 

" I send you," says Mr. Briggs to the editor, " the num- 
ber of pounds of fruit as kept in my daily record. I have 
annexed the price. We have sold as follows : — 

Fruits. No. Pounds. Price. Amount. 

Cents. 

Cherries 3,680 60 $2,208 

Appricots 58,400 20 11,680 

Plums 22,120 30 6,636 

Peaches 763,600 8 61,088 

Nectarines 93,400 8 7,472 

Apples 225,000 13 29,250 

Pears 11,300 15 1,695 

Quinces 4,720 20 945 

Figs 6,300 20 1,260 

Grapes 34,500 8 2,760 

12,223,020 $124,993" 

Estimating it in bushels, it amounts to more than 
twenty thousand bushels. California well may 
claim the palm for her horticultural products, and 
though all her fruits may not equal those of our 
more northern clime, they certainly surpass them in 
abundance and size. 

In our Western States there are farmers cultivat- 
ing immense tracts of land with evident profit. 
There are farms of 10,000 acres, yielding 90,000 
bushels of corn alone, with thousands of bushels of 
wheat, besides fattening great droves of hogs and cat- 
tle. But these facts are too well known to make a 
recapitulation necessary. These must be profitable 
undertakings, or their owners would abandon them. 



844 II OW TO (*ET A FARM, 

" Commerce and manufactures," says another authority, 
"must ever be secondary to the cultivation of the soil. 
The latter is not only the most important of all human in- 
dustrial pursuits, but is the only real source of wealth. 
Commerce produces nothing — its office being merely the 
barter of commodities. Whether this barter takes place) 
between one country and another, or between individuals 
of the same country, it is but an exchange of equivalents. 
It is therefore to be regarded as a mere medium for the 
distribution or circulation of wealth, and not as in any way 
contributing to its existence or production. Then, as to 
manufactures, there is no matter produced which did not 
previously exist, their office being only to convert material 
previously existing into forms of greater utility and con- 
venience. At first sight, mining may appear to have a 
greater claim to the production of wealth, but it does not, 
in reality, produce anything which did not before exist. 
Every pound of iron, silver, gold, or coal, existed in the 
bowels of the earth long before it was taken from them. 
Increase of matter proceeds from agriculture alone. The 
surplus of this over cost of production constitutes the only 
increase of real wealth or capital. Yet however true this 
may be, it must be remembered that commerce by the ex- 
change of commodities, and manufactures by giving to the 
productions of agriculture a more useful form, are greatly 
conducive to the aggrandizement of nations, and to the 
convenience and comfort of their population." 

The reader is probably goings somewhere. He 
may possibly have various offers of employment 
or occupation, and find it difficult to decide between 
them. There is one rule which, in all such cases, 
will generally be found a safe one to follow — go 
where he is most wanted. It may not be that a man 



AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 345 

should always go where most clamored after, or 
even where most liberally paid, though either of 
these things affords an indication of where he ought 
to locate. In the foregoing pages, a shrewd and 
persevering man cannot fail to discover where he is 
most wanted — as well as the ways and means, how 
and where, to plant his stakes. If at a loss to de- 
cide, such hesitation cannot spring from lack of op- 
portunities, but from their abundance. It is here 
apparent that everywhere around him there are 
openings that lie waiting to be appropriated. No 
other country in the world presents a similar spec- 
tacle. Throughout Europe, land is at a premium, 
and labor at a discount. Here the contrary is the 
rule — labor commands the premium, and land is 
held at the discount. Though slowly acquiring 
some of this foreign passion for the ownership of 
land, yet centuries must elapse before the American 
people become generally imbued with it. Of those 
who now hunger after freeholds, too many are mere 
speculators. But recent legislation has placed be- 
yond their grasp the largest portion of the public 
domain. It remains for the actual settler to crowd 
them altogether from the arena. 

15* 



THE END. 



JAMES MILLER, 

522 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 

OPP08ITH THE 8T. NICHOLAS HOTEL, 

Has for sale a very complete and extensive stock of 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BOOKS. 

*N THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE; 
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BOOK BINDING IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. 



CHELTENHAM NURSERIES. 

The subscribers offer for sale a choice selection of Fruit and 
Ornamental Trees, Plants and Shrubs, at their Nurseries on 
Oak Lane, near the Station of North Pennsylvania liailroad, 
three miles east of GermantoAvn, and to which they would call 
the particular attention of the Farmer, Gardener, and Planter. 
Catalogues on application. 

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MILLER'S NEW YORK AS IT IS; 

OR, 

STEALER'S GUIDE BOOK 
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PRICE, 75 CENTS. 
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JAMES MILLER, Publisher, 

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STRAWBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES. 



* Having a large quantity of the best varie 
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I will supply them in lots, on a credit of two 
years, without interest, for satisfactory notes. 
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From the Press of 

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From the New York Tribune. 
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II. 

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7"he Illustrated Horse Doctor ; with more than 400 pictorial representations of the various! 
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and Amusements of Great Britain. By Ston'EHENGE. Very numerous enirraviims 
Foolscap, 8vo, half bound. Price, $4.00. 

THE SHOT-GUN AND SPORTING-RIFLE: and the 

Dogs, Ponies, Ferrets, Ac, used with them in the various kinds of Sporting. By 
Stonehenge. Illustrated by numerous engravings. 12mo, half bound. Price, $4.00 

RHAM'S DICTIONARY OF THE FARM. Revised and 

re-edited by W. & H. R.AYNBIRD. A new edition, with many illustrations. Svo half 
bound. Price, $1.75. 

HOW TO FARM PROFITABLY. By Alderman Mechi. 

\ new edition, much enlarged, with illustrations. Foolscap, Svo, half bound. Price, 
$1.50. 

*** One of the most practical and useful books that can possibly be put into the hands 
of a practical Agriculturist. 

THE HORSE. By Wm. Youatt. A new edition, revised and 

re -edited, with observations on Breeding Cavalry ilor.-es, bv Cecil, author of "The 
Stud Farm," Ac, Ac. With illustrations. Foolscap, Svo, half bound. Price, $1.00 

OUR GARDEN FRIENDS AND FOES. By Rev. J. G. 

Wood, author of '-The Illustrated Natural History." With 200 illustrations. 12mo 
cjoth. Price, $3.00. 

ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF DOMESTIC POULTRY. By 

Mautin Doyle. With colored plates. 8vo, half bound. Price, $2.25. 

lEluslratccl Hainl Books for the Country. 

THE SHEEP : Our Domestic Breeds and their Treatment. Price, 40 cts. 

THE POULTRY- YARD : Comprising the General Treatment and Management of Fowls 

Price. 40 cts. 
THE PIG : How to Choose, Breed, Rear, Keep, and Cure it. Price, 40 cts. 
CATTLE : Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases. To which is added THE D -VIRY 

Price, 60 Cts. 
THE HORSE : Its History, Management, and Treatment. Piice, 40 cts. 
BEES : Their Habits, Management, and Treatment. Price, 40 cts. 
SMALL FARMS, and how thev ought to be Managed. Price, 40 cts 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN. Price, 40 cts. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN'. Price, 40 cts. 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY : A Familiar Explanation of the Chemical Principles 

involved in the operations of the Farm. Price, 00 cts. 
HINTS FOR FARMERS, and useful information for Agricultural Students. Price 40 

cents. ' 

RURAL ECONOMY: Being useful information on Cow-keeping, Sheep, Pigs, Ac, Ac 

Price, 40 cts. 
: A Treasury of useful information ou Farm and Garden Produce 

Price, 40 cts. 

NEW YORK (Edmund Baldwin, Agt.), 129 Grand St. 
LONDON, Broadway, Ludgate Hill. 



LUMBER AND LOG- BOOK. 

SCRIBNER'S READY RECKONER, for measuring all kinds of saw logs, 
boards, planks, cubical contents of square and round wood, &c, comprised in a 
number of tables, to which are added tables by the month, board or rent by the 
week or day, &c, &c. Scarcely is it possible to add to the recommendations ot 
the above book, more than to give its title page, as every one engaged in buying 
and selling, measuring or inspecting lumber, will at once appreciate the work. 
This is the most complete and reliable book ever published on this subject. Over 
three hundred thousand copies have been sold, and the demand is constant and 
increasing. 

Farmers, lumber merchants, and business men, will find it very useful. Price. 
30 cents, post-paid. Peddlers and dealers can make money selling the book. 

Published and for sale, wholesale and retail, by 

GEORGE W. FISHER, Rochester, N. Y. 

Fruit, Evergreen, Ornamental, and Shade Trees; 
Hedge Plants, &c. 

The subscribers have thirty acres of nursery, entirely devoted 
to the above purposes ; and having a large trade with Land Asso- 
ciations and new settlements, to which they can refer, can advise 
from experience, with their correspondents, as to 

WHAT IS BEST TO PLANT. 

A personal inspection of the stock or correspondence solicited. 

MEEHAN & WANDELL, 

Germantown Nurseries, 
Germantown, near Philadelphia. 

JOSHUA COWPLAND, 

MANUFACTURER AND DEALER IN 

LOOKOCJ CLASSES, 

PICTURE FRAMES, 

AND LARGE OVAL GILT MIRRORS, 
No. 53 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia. 

DR. FINE, 

(practical dentist for the last twenty years) 

219 Vine Street (below Third), Philadelphia, 

Inserts the most beautiful teeth of the age, and all of the latest 
improvements, mounted on fine Gold, Platina, Silver, Vulcanite, 
Coralite, Amber, Continuous Gum, and Mineral Plates, at prices 
for neat and substantial work, more reasonable than any Dentist 
in this City or State. 

Teeth Plugged to last for life. Artificial Teeth repaired to 
suit. 

No pain in extracting. All work warranted to fit. References, 
best families. 



CHOICE FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



EDW. J. EVANS & CO., 

Respectfully invite the attention of Parties purchasing and im- 
proving Lands, or making Homes for themselves, to their supe- 
rior stock of 

SELECT TREES: 

Embracing a choice assortment of Standard and Dwarl 
Fruit Trees, of all kinds ; Grapes and Small Fruits, 
in quantity ; a large and fine stock of Decidu- 
ous Trees, for Street and Lawn planting ; 
Evergreens of choice kinds ; hardy- 
Flowering Shrubs and Vines ; 
Roses, Bedding Plants, &c. 
Catalogues mailed to applicants. Especial inducements to Clubs. 

Address, EDW. J. EVANS & CO., 

York, F 

Relief from the Cares of City Life, 



TEIST ACEES ENOUGH, 

A PRACTICAL TREATISE FOR THE MILLION 

SHOWING HOW A VERY SMALL FARM MAY BE MADE TO SUP- 
PORT A VERY LARGE FAMILY. 

With full and minute Instructions as to the best mode of Cul- 
tivating the Smaller Fruits, such as 

Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, etc., 

Also, What Capital is needed ; Where the Man of Small Means 
should Locate to Secure the most Profit ; How he should go to 
Work, and what he can do when Beginning in a Small Way. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

Copies mailed on receipt of Price. Sold by all Booksellers in 
the United States. 

JAMES MILLER, Publisher, 

522 Broadway, N. York. 



NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA 

ORNAMENTAL IRON WORKS 



CHASE & CO., N. Y WOOD & PEROT, PHIL. 

Warehouse. 524 Broadway, IV. ¥., 

OPPOSITE THE ST. NICHOLAS HOTEL. 

MANUFACTURERS OF 

IROIV FURNITURE, GARDEN ORNAMENTS, 

CEMETERY EMBELLISHMENTS, RAILINGS, ETC. 



m 




Iron Bedsteads, 
Hat and Coat Stands, 

Wash-Stands, 

Saloon Tables, 
Store Stools, 
Umbrella Stands, 

Brackets, 

Children's Cribs, 
Cradles, 
Toilet Stands, 

Garden Vases, 

Fountains, 
Statuary, 
Chairs, Settees, 

Trellisses, 

Summer Houses, 
Wire Arbors, 
Flower Stands, 

Ivy Trainers. 

IVY LEAF BORDERS FOR INCLOSING SINGLE GRAVES, 
With NAME, TABLET, &c, &c. 




